Comments on: How to Assess the “Best Interests” of Pathologically Alienated Children http://www.thecourt.ca/2009/11/24/how-to-assess-the-best-interests-of-pathologically-alienated-children/ The Court is the online resource for data and debate about the Supreme Court of Canada. Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:34:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Neil V. Batt http://www.thecourt.ca/2009/11/24/how-to-assess-the-best-interests-of-pathologically-alienated-children/comment-page-1/#comment-166461 Neil V. Batt Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:30:43 +0000 http://www.thecourt.ca/?p=3200#comment-166461 I am personally involved in a very similar situation as the father and the emotional damage to him and his children is a very serious and real condition that has not only affect my menatal health but has manifested into physical conditions as well. I am now being told my child has issues and syndromes and has to maintain the "structure" of his life and not be able to visit me in my home. I am personally involved in a very similar situation as the father and the emotional damage to him and his children is a very serious and real condition that has not only affect my menatal health but has manifested into physical conditions as well. I am now being told my child has issues and syndromes and has to maintain the “structure” of his life and not be able to visit me in my home.

]]> By: Ahsan Mirza http://www.thecourt.ca/2009/11/24/how-to-assess-the-best-interests-of-pathologically-alienated-children/comment-page-1/#comment-164627 Ahsan Mirza Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:19:20 +0000 http://www.thecourt.ca/?p=3200#comment-164627 I think there is a slippery slope here with what you are suggesting in terms of undermining the child's autonomy. The fact that a child “cannot possibly feel comfortable relating to her father freely and positively given her mother’s negative and angry feelings towards him” could be held to be true in a lot of less egregious cases then the one you analyzed. The result could be an even heavier weighing of objective criteria assessed by a court and a lightening of the subjective wishes and feelings of the child (thereby undermining autonomy). This is the slippery slope that I think Binnie J is alerting us to in his dissent in the other case you mention, <em>AC v. Manitoba</em>. Thoughts? I think there is a slippery slope here with what you are suggesting in terms of undermining the child’s autonomy. The fact that a child “cannot possibly feel comfortable relating to her father freely and positively given her mother’s negative and angry feelings towards him” could be held to be true in a lot of less egregious cases then the one you analyzed. The result could be an even heavier weighing of objective criteria assessed by a court and a lightening of the subjective wishes and feelings of the child (thereby undermining autonomy). This is the slippery slope that I think Binnie J is alerting us to in his dissent in the other case you mention, AC v. Manitoba.

Thoughts?

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