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Section 43 of the Canadian Criminal Code allows parents to
use physical force to discipline their children. This section makes it possible
for school teachers, parents and persons acting as parents to use ‘reasonable
force’ to physically discipline children. I can appreciate laws such as this,
that protect a parent’s right to discipline the way they choose to without
facing criminal prosecution.
The law was enacted in 1892 and provides protection for
parents who chose to use corporal punishment or spanking as a discipline
method. I called my blog conflicted correction because my research tells me
that even the government of Canada is conflicted about the protections within
the law, as am I. After researching accredited articles, pamphlets and books,
the Canadian government shows that they don’t agree with their own statutes. In
a pamphlet on the Government of Canada website (http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/hp-ps/dca-dea/publications/spanking-fessee/index-eng.php)
they provide insight such as “What’s Wrong With Spanking” and “Why Spanking
Does Not Work”. These articles force you to believe that the government does
not believe that spanking is a safe, useful or necessary practice in parenting.
Looking into these government databases such as the Public
Health Agency of Canada and the Canadian Department of Justice, It is hard to
find articles that expressly describe the definition of ‘reasonable force’.
Also, it feels impossible to find government publications, outside of case law,
that supports the use of section of 43 of the Criminal Code.
So why have the law? In a case where a father had “pushed’
his daughter into a vehicle to stop her from attending a party, the father was
charged with assault. The daughter told the police that her father had
assaulted her. The father was subsequently convicted of the charge. Upon appeal
to the Superior Court of Ontario, the father’s conviction was overturned due to
the daughter’s poor decision making and the court agreeing that the father was
trying to protect her from the bad decisions. The Superior Court of Ontario
found that the father had no other tools left to discipline his daughter other
than the physical force he used. The father’s right to use reasonable force
against his child was protected under this law.
Without a law like section 43 of the Criminal Code, parents
no longer have a choice whether or not to use physical force as a means of correction.
For most parents who were raised in households where corporal punishment was a
norm, it would be a difficult parenting situation where they have no
alternative guideline to follow. Sometimes pamphlets and articles are not
enough to teach some people how to effectively parent.
References
Public Health Agency of Canada (2014) What’s Wrong With Spanking? December 15th, 2008 from http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/hp-ps/dca-dea/publications/spanking-fessee/index-eng.php
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