E-6972: Petition to the Prime Minister — Canadian Petition Tracker
Canonical URL: https://petitiontracker.ca/petition/e-6972
Track petition E-6972 — "Petition to the Prime Minister" sponsored by Lisa Hepfner. 112 signatures and counting. See signature growth trends and provincial breakdown on PetitionTracker.ca.
Petition Text
Petition to the Prime Minister
Whereas:
• While the population of Canada has increased by 30% between 1997 and 2022, systemic shifts in nuptiality have occurred: common-law 92%, divorced 60%, widowed 34%, separated 31%, married 24%, and single 23%;
• Under the division of powers in the Canadian Constitution, marriage and divorce are under federal jurisdiction while property jurisdiction is provincial, and in 1968, amendments to the Divorce Act transfer divorce jurisdiction to the provinces;
• After death of a spouse, divorce and separation are found to be the second and third most stressful major life events;
• Federal and provincial divorce legislation has always been focused on legislating the rights of women and children, but it is still biased and discriminatory against women;
• Despite females being more than three times more likely to be victims of intimate partner violence (IPV), the Divorce Act legislates that IPV is not a factor in determining corollary relief;
• In Canada, income tax law applies equally to married and common-law partners, but rights upon relationship breakdown do not, and common-law partners are not entitled to the same division of marital property as married partners and those rights also differ interprovincially: federal pensions are to be divided by period of cohabitation but most province family law ignore this legislation; and
• In the last 10 years, interprovincial migration rates range from 6.56 to 9.04.
We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to work with the provinces to streamline and remove bias and discrimination from divorce and family law in all federal and provincial legislation granting Canadians equal, equitable, and just separation/divorce rights across Canada.