This project builds on work being done on custody and access in Ontario's Durham Region.  Since 1997 the project has:

• Brought together lawyers and counselor-advocates to discuss the impact of  custody and access proceedings on abused women and their children
• Conducted focus group research with 52 women to learn more about the experiences abused women had in maintaining custody of their children and protecting them from further exposure to violence and;
• Held a conference, where working groups were established to develop resources to support abused women and their children, make the legal system more responsive to the needs of abused women and their children and protect women and children from further exposure to violence.

This project, however, primarily focused on the experiences of Canadian-born women. A comprehensive literature review found that although there is a growing body of literature on the experiences of abused immigrant and refugee women very little of this literature dealt with custody and access. A review of 26 Canadian titles found only 5 references to the custody and access experiences of abused immigrant and refugee women. However, informal consultations with service providers in immigrant and refugee communities found that abused immigrant and refugee women had "many experiences" to share about the difficulty of keeping themselves and their children safe after leaving abusive relationships.

Participatory Research

The project used participatory research to gather information on the child custody and access experiences of abused immigrant and refugee women. Community partners worked with the researcher to ensure that information was gathered in a sensitive, respectful and inclusive manner and assisted the researcher to:

• Design data collection methods and tools
• Identify research sites and research participants and
• Organize data collection.

Data was gathered from:

• 11 focus groups and 5 key informant interviews with 92 immigrant and refugee women (90 of whom were woman abuse survivors) in 9 languages
• 8 key informant interviews with lawyers
• 12 key informant interviews with counselor-advocates
• 1 round table with 3 lawyers and 18 counselor-advocates

Major Findings

"For the sake of the children"

The research found that immigrant and refugee women, like Canadian born women, often stayed in abusive relationships "for the sake of the children." 

Some said that they were afraid of losing their children to their partners' family if they left -  "In my community children are considered their 'father's property'."

Others said that they were afraid that their children would be stigmatized in the eyes of the community if they left.

Still others said that they were afraid that they would be deported without their children if they left or that they and their children would be deported and they didn't want their children to miss out on a "better life in Canada."

Barriers to Leaving

Immigrant and refugee women who wanted to leave reported that they faced numerous barriers to leaving including:

• Attitudes of family, friends and community members
• Fear of poverty and homelessness
• Not knowing where to turn or what help was available
• Partners who dominate and control their communication with the outside world
• Their immigration status or lack of status

Custody

• 83 of the women interviewed reported that they had sole custody of their children and that they remained their children's primary caregiver after they separated.  All of their former partners, however, had access.
• 1 had joint custody with her former partner. 
• 2 women lost custody to their former partners.
• 3 women had children in the care of a Children's Aid Society.  In 2 of these 3 cases it was the children's fathers who called the Children's Aid Society with charges of abuse and neglect.
• 1 woman sent her child to live with her parents in her country of origin.

Access

67 of 83 women whose former partners had access described access as "difficult" or "stressful" for both their children and themselves.  Former partners would:

• Make unannounced visits
• Miss visits without notice or explanations
• Return children late from visits or demand transit fare or gas money to return the children

During access visits children were exposed to further violence and gender stereotyping. One father, for example, told his son to hit his daughter if she bothered him.  Children were not properly dressed or fed during visits. Established routines such as mealtimes, bedtimes and bath times were ignored or deliberately undermined.

Several women reported that their former partners used access visits to "keep tabs on them" by asking the children what they were doing and who they were seeing.  Others reported that their former partners would use access as a way to stalk and harass them.  Former partners would call to talk about the children and then proceed to use the call to insult and demean them. 

Even supervised access could prove "difficult" and "stressful".  In cases where a member of the father's family or a friend was supervising access there was often a "multiplier effect."  Not only would the father say bad things about the mother to the children but his family and friends would join in.

One father was able to use access visits in a Supervised Access Center, with a trained supervisor to continue the abuse.  He would threaten and intimidate the children in another language.  The access supervisor—who did not speak that language—was not aware of what was going on and therefore could not stop it or report it to the Family Court.

Changing access arrangements

Women who tried to hold their former partners to what was written in the custody order around access found themselves charged by their former partners with being "unreasonable" and taken to court.   Most women whose former partners had access wanted this changed but found the process of doing so to be slow.

Travel

Women who had sole custody reported that that their former partners would block or challenge any attempts they made to travel out of the country.  Visiting with extended family was important to these women because it provided a break from being their children's primary caregiver.

Access to Justice

Most immigrant and refugee women reported that they did not know what their rights and legal entitlements were under Canadian law when they left.  Women, from many communities, for example, did not know that in Canada children are considered the responsibility of both parents and not their father's property.

Most women also reported that they did not know what kind of legal help was available or where they could find it. Many women turned to people they knew in the community (e.g. police officers, spiritual or religious leaders), friends and family members for help only to find that the support and information they were given was inadequate or inaccurate.

Even if women got advice and information from a lawyer or a counselor-advocate most did not know how to check the quality of the advice and information they received.  Several women, for example, reported that they got inaccurate information about child support and division of property from their lawyers but did not know until long afterward that it was wrong.

Most women found accessing legal aid difficult.  Most, even those fluent in English, found the forms extremely difficult to fill in.  Some did not know how to get the documentation they needed in order to qualify.

For women who got legal aid, the number of hours the Ontario legal aid plan provided were too low for a lawyer to adequately represent them.  The legal aid plan also did not provide funds for cultural interpreters, so women who spoke little or no English found themselves using lawyers from their communities.  While some of these lawyers understood woman abuse and were sympathetic, most were not.

Women who could not get legal aid found lawyers' fees too high and the process of going through the legal system extremely time and labour intensive.

Fear of the Legal System

Several counselor-advocates and lawyers reported that immigrant and refugee women they worked with were afraid of using the legal system because:

• It is unpredictable
• They knew women who had a hard time going through the system
• They were unfamiliar with the Canadian legal system
• There was no cultural interpretation provided in family court
• They came from countries where the legal system was unjust or even corrupt