Infinite Monkeys

Child sues her dad over being grounded, and wins. Blame Canada!

The guys who bring us the weekly brilliance of South Park had it right. "Blame Canada!"

The Quebec Superior Court not only thought it was a good idea to hear a case of a 12-year-old girl angry about being grounded by Daddy. They ruled in her favor.

A 12-year-old Quebec girl who felt so strongly about her end-of-year school trip that she took her father to court after he forbade her from going is at the centre of a case that challenges the authority of parental discipline.

The extreme measure of taking the case to court, which the girl's lawyer defended as a necessary move to ensure the child was not denied a significant rite of passage, was upheld by the judge in a surprise ruling last week.

A little background: The child's parents are apparently going through a divorce. Dad has primary custody (for now). The girl needed permission from both parents to go on the trip. Mommy said, "yes." Daddy said, "no" — because she was grounded for violating the boundaries he put down for use of the Internet.

So the girl found a lawyer (employee of the state) to take her case.

"This was something that would never happen again in the child's life," said Lucie Fortin, the lawyer for the girl, who cannot be named.

She's 12. She's in elementary school. What "something" that happened in your elementary school experience that would "never happen again" would you be emotionally scarred for life if you missed it? Take your time ...

I hope you answer is "nothing." If not, go to law school. Join the ACLU and proceed to ruin our country.

The pre-teen's lawyer (and it pains me to even type those words) said she normally wouldn't have intervened such a seemingly insignificant episode of normally sacred parental rights, but this situation called for the intervention of the state.

"This was not a question of going to the movies or not, or going online or not — because obviously, I wouldn't have intervened in that," she said.

Obviously. This is serious business, worthy of the state playing the good parent.

A subject not raised in this incredible story is how "adults" in Canada — which includes lawyers and a judge — did not think about the long-term damage they were inflicting on a 12-year-old by even getting involved in this trivial issue. The girl does not have the capacity to realize what she is doing. Adults should know better (and yes, that includes the girl's mother, who shoulders a great deal of blame for supporting this lawsuit). But how does this girl now mend the damage this whole spectacle has inflicted on the relationship with herself and her one and only father?

The answer is: She doesn't. The gir's father, with justification (if not compassion), said he refuses to take his daughter back into his home "because he has no authority over her." How is that statement wrong in light of this?

Again, where are the adults? A mindless, hyper-litigious Canadian "system" needed to protect this girl from making an irreversible mistake, not encourage her to destroy the relationship with her father. Nothing good comes from this situation. Nothing.

I hope South Park's view of Canada doesn't come true in lawyer-crazy America. Before this, the worst things to come out of Canada were Anne Murray and Bryan Adams. I'd like it if the list stopped there.

Posted by Dr. Zaius at June 20, 2008 12:02 AM