Lawyers and schoolteachers are urging Parliament to reject proposed bills that would ban spanking as a means of correcting children's behavior. Blacklock's Reporter says two separate bills in the Commons and Senate aim to repeal a longstanding corporal punishment provision in the Criminal Code.“It is impossible to imagine how a parent could successfully foster their child’s development without ever applying reasonable and minimal force to persuade, constrain or protect the child,” the Québec Defence Lawyers Association stated in a letter to the Senate legal and constitutional affairs committee.Section 43 of the Criminal Code allows parents, teachers, and guardians to use force that “does not exceed what is reasonable.” Senate Bill S-251, An Act To Repeal, seeks to eliminate this clause.“Repealing Section 43 of the Criminal Code would expose parents and guardians to criminal prosecution and even convictions for minimal use of force,” wrote the Defence Lawyers. “The Association considers this unacceptable.”The Canadian Teachers’ Federation has also petitioned senators to reject the bill. “Without replacement for Section 43 we anticipate an increase in the number of assault charges filed and prosecuted,” the Federation warned. “As a precaution, teachers would be advised not to intervene in situations.”The Federation highlighted scenarios in which teachers use force to maintain order, such as “escorting an uncooperative student out of the classroom to the principal’s office,” “restraining a student whose actions were posing harm to others,” and dealing with students who had “a history of violent meltdowns.”Bill S-251 has passed Second Reading in the Senate, while an identical Bill C-273, An Act To Amend The Criminal Code, awaits Third Reading in the Commons.“Countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Russia still permit the physical punishment of children,” noted New Democrat MP Peter Julian (New Westminster-Burnaby, B.C.), the bill’s sponsor, during Commons debate. Julian shared that his own parents “believed very strongly that physical punishment was not justified.”“It was a blessing to be in that family,” Julian added. “I am hoping we can raise all children the same way.”The repeal bill passed Second Reading in the Commons by a 208 to 115 vote, with opposition from Conservative and Bloc Québécois MPs.“We have seen attempts time and time again to diminish the role played not only by parents but also by the family as a fundamental building block of society,” argued Conservative MP Damien Kurek (Battle River-Crowfoot, Alta.) in the Commons. “Any attempt to see that diminished would be wrong. We can see the implications of this.”The Supreme Court upheld the current law as constitutional in 2004. The debate over repeal has continued since the 1995 acquittal of an American tourist charged with assaulting his daughter in a London, Ont. parking lot.David Peterson of Warrenton, Illinois, was charged after a passerby saw him spanking his misbehaving five-year-old daughter and called the police. Peterson explained that his daughter had tried to push her two-year-old brother out of the car and slammed a door on the toddler’s hand. After spending a night in jail, Peterson was acquitted at trial as a “responsible, reasonable and caring parent.”
