Is it time to re-examine Section 43 of the Canadian Criminal Code?

This blog is about a politically and socially charged issue; but it is a topic that needs to be discussed and is one where we need to educate ourselves. I struggle with the many dichotomies in our societies today and am greatly challenged on how we have allowed ourselves to become “us-or-them” communities. Part of me wonders if somewhere or somehow there are deliberate forces pushing us to proudly chant “either you are with us or you are [against us]”. Yet nothing is so simple. I recognize that my desire for a solution, is to some degree based upon an absolute belief, but I choose to raise this issue because I believe we need to find a better way. I am an educator who lives through his beliefs and values and I fundementally believe that we need respectful discourse; we need rich, safe, and open conversations in order to help find better ways to solve the challenges we all face today.

There are so many significant issues in our society today that need attention in some way that it is little wonder we have trouble dealing with any of them in any meaningful or significant way. How deep do we choose to dig into any issue? How far below the surface do we really scrape and/or what type of an ADHD-type behaviour do we exhibit as we examine key issues affecting Canadian society; other than just grabbing at the flashy, socially-trending aspects of some of these issues? Is it possible that if we could move past our social need to politicize and/or emotionalize many of these issues we might just address a broader swath of social concerns? Just maybe, there are connections between and among various social issues and societal behaviours. If we only took the time to examine them in a broad and connected way we might have real social progress in our country.

To this end, Section 43 of the Criminal Code of Canada has been pushed and pulled in many directions for a number of years:. It simply states:

Correction of child by force

43– Every schoolteacher, parent or person standing in the place of a parent is justified in using force by way of correction toward a pupil or child, as the case may be, who is under his care, if the force does not exceed what is reasonable under the circumstances. (https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-46/section-43.html)

In other words, according to the Department of Justice:

The use of force to correct a child is only allowed to help the child learn and can never be used in anger.

The child must be between two years old and twelve years old.

The force used must be reasonable and its impact only “transitory and trifling”.

The person must not use an object, such as a ruler or belt, when applying the force.

The person must not hit or slap the child’s head.

The seriousness of what happened or what the child did is not relevant.

Using reasonable force to restrain a child may be acceptable in some circumstances.(https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/cj-jp/fv-vf/mcb-cce/index.html)

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Yes, there is great ambiguity in all of the above but I can’t bite my tongue any longer; “justified use of force” is a violent act against a child. What lesson does physical violence teach a child? Use of force by way of correction is violence. Raising a hand against another, is a violent act. Why have we, as a society, accepted the fact that violence against children (as defined above) is a perfectly acceptable means of education (to help the child learn). Yes, children learn – they learn that physical violence is an acceptable means of coercion: it is an acceptable means of forcing someone to do something against their will. Children learn that hitting is an acceptable means of exerting power over someone else, regardless of the supposed intent. The periphery language in the above is solely there to protect the perpetrator of this violence.

Why is it, that in our society: Hitting adults is called assault; Hitting animals is called cruelty; But Hitting children is defined as being “for their own good”? Oh dear, what a twisted world we have created. What are we teaching our children?

We spend so much time dealing with the effects of violence in our society yet we fail to ask where, psychologically, the roots of violent thinking comes from. Unfortunately, there are a number of different segments of our society who argue that Section 43 is necessary in support of their religious or parental rights; their right to discipline their children for whatever reason. This is a violent act regardless of how you choose to convince yourself otherwise. This cycle of violence must come to an end. How dare anyone use the excuse of love or any other supposed “valid” reason to hit and harm a child.

How can we ever hope to become a truly just society; an enlightened community of caring and loving peoples? Come on Canada, we have apologized for many apparent wrongs in our past and we are struggling very hard to understand our relationships with our indigenous peoples, the violence that has seeped into our communities, and the way we treat each other. Just maybe, many of our social ills and societal challenges have been, to some degree, fostered by our acceptance of a violent society at the beginning of life through the use of “justified force… to correct a child [in helping that] child learn”. We introduce our children to violence and then wonder why our society behaves the way it does.

There is only one solution – REPEAL Section 43

Canada is in some ways a hypocritical signatory of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in that Section 43 of the Criminal Code clearly contradicts articles 2, 37, and 39 with respect to punishment; although the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children does cite some progress with respect to Canada. https://endcorporalpunishment.org/reports-on-every-state-and-territory/canada/

It is widely acknowledged that corporal punishment is a fundamental breach of children’s rights and respect for their human dignity as well as their physical and mental integrity — This breach of our children’s rights won’t go away if we ignore it nd it only serves to exacerbate a growing divide in our society.

There are many examples of enlightened societies and interested parties in the world today – Read and see how things can be better:

Our babies are our future – they must be loved and cherished, not taught violence in their formative years.

How do we grow and nurture loving and caring adults? The early years only happen once.

>> Other sources and resources (even some that have a very different perspective from mine).

There must NEVER be a reason, legal or otherwise, to harm a child