ALLEGATIONS OF CHILD ABUSE IN THE CONTEXT OF PARENTAL SEPARATION: A DISCUSSION PAPER

2001-FCY-4E

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This project could not have been conducted without the assistance and support of many individuals.  First, we would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Department of Justice Canada, as well as the assistance and direction of Ms. Tracy Perry, Research Officer, Research and Statistics Division; Ms Marilyn Bongard, Policy Officer, Family, Children and Youth; Mr. George Kiefl, Research Officer, Child Support Team; and members of the review committee.

We thank the following people, who willingly agreed to be interviewed as part of our Key Informant Survey, and helped to identify issues and put the problem of false allegations of abuse in custody and access cases into context: 

• Staff Sgt. Dean Albrecht, Edmonton Police Service, Alberta;
• Justice Lynn Cook-Stanhope, Provincial Court of Alberta;
• Mr.  David C. Day, Q.C., Lewis Day, St. John's, Newfoundland;
• Ms Janet Douglas, Social Worker, Vancouver, British Columbia;
• Mr. David Fleming, Social Worker, Metropolitan Toronto Children's Aid Society, Ontario;
• Ms Jane Grafton, Greater Vancouver Mediation and Supervision Service Inc., British Columbia;
• Ms Heather Henderson, Branch Service Director, Simcoe County Children's Aid Society, Ontario;
• Justice Colleen Kenny, Court of Queen's Bench, Alberta;
• Justice Heino Lilles, Territorial Court of Yukon;
• Mr. Robert O'Rourke, Consultant Clinical Services, Department of Health and Social Services, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories;
• Ms Brenda L. Romans, Intake Worker, Family and Children's Services of Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia;
• Dr. Nancy Thoennes, Associate Director, Center for Policy Research, Denver, Colorado;
• Ms Dorothy Warren, Assistant Executive Director, Department of Social Services, Regina, Saskatchewan;
• and Detective Ross Woronka, Sex Crimes Unit, Calgary Police Service, Alberta.

We are grateful to Dr. Lorne Bertrand and Mr. David Day for their comments on drafts of this report and last, but by no means least, we thank Mrs. Linda Bland for her clerical assistance.

Some portions of this paper are a revised version of a paper by Bala and Schuman, "Allegations of Sexual Abuse when Parents have Separated" (2000), 17 Canadian Family Law Quarterly 191-243.  That paper was prepared with the support of a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

The Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family is supported by a grant from the Alberta Law Foundation.

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