Orangeville Banner
Register User
Close

“Superheroes” seek changes to family law
Friday August 29 2008
By RICHARD VIVIAN Banner Staff Writer
 
A team of “superheroes” will be stopping in Orangeville Tuesday morning in an effort to raise awareness of proposed changes to federal divorce legislation.
The group Fathers 4 Justice Canada, known for performing attention-grabbing stunts, has scheduled an 8 a.m. visit in the downtown. Participants dressed as superheroes will be handing out postcards addressed to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, as well as bracelets and temporary tattoos.
“A number of people in Orangeville have contacted Fathers 4 Justice over the years,” representative Denis Van Decker says, explaining the group strives to draw public attention to the “hostile” and “adversarial” family law system.
“It’s a ... winner-takes-all system,” he suggests. “That’s just not the way it needs to be.
“I know there are a lot of people affected in Orangeville,” Van Decker adds.
Fathers 4 Justice is touring the country to draw attention to a private member’s bill from Saskatoon-Wanuskewin MP Maurice Vellacott. The bill proposes changes to the Federal Divorce Act designed to instill the principal of equal parenting after divorce.
“It’s by no means a solution,” Van Decker says, adding, “It’s a step along the way.”
Two members of the group, dressed as Spiderman and Wonder Woman, were arrested in Toronto Wednesday morning (Aug. 27) after unfurling a banner on a crane.
Such activities are necessary, Van Decker says, because several decades of writing letters seeking revisions to the law went unanswered. He compares the group’s non-violent actions to those of American civil rights activist Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi.
“We’re trying to attract attention wherever we go,” he says, noting their activities sometimes get national media attention. “People are talking about us. People know what we do.”
Van Decker says no such stunts are planned for the Orangeville stop.