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Friday February 26, 1999


NO FAULT DIVORCE KILLING FAMILIES

TORONTO, ON, Feb 26 (LSN) – A study released yesterday by the C.D. Howe Institute indicates that no-fault divorce is one of Canada’s most destructive social policies. Professor Douglas W. Allen of Simon Fraser University argues that “one would be hard pressed to find another example of a single piece of legislation that has had as much impact on families a the introduction of no- fault divorce.” Among the tragedies blamed on no-fault divorce are the huge increase in children growing up in poverty and in single-parent homes.

The study finds that children of divorced parents are more likely than those in intact families to experience almost every category of social ill and deviant behaviour.

The report also reinforces past studies which show that most wives suffer a fall in their personal consumption after divorce while husbands do better financially.

The authors argue for abolishing no-fault divorce and replacing it with a system of divorce by mutual consent where neither partner would be able to leave a marriage without the consent of the other. One of the authors argues that society “should regard marriage as an institution indissoluble except for grave cause — an institution in which others than the adult partners, particularly their children, have an interest.”


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