Webinar: Access Matters: Advocating for meaningful Access Orders and Agreements in Child and Family Services Proceedings
When: Monday, April 28, 2025
Who:
- Kate Feeney, Director of Litigation at West Coast LEAF (moderator)
- Candice Noris, Peer Facilitator at RainCity Housing
- Danielle VanderEnde, Managing Lawyer at the Surrey Parents Legal Centre
- Meena Dhillon, Managing Lawyer at the South Asian Legal Clinic
- Frances Rosner, parent’s counsel and Indigenous Family Advocate Support Lawyer at the Rise Women’s Legal Centre
- Linoy Alkalay, Project Coordinator at RainCity Housing.
What:
Courthouse Libraries BC and West Coast LEAF present Access Matters: Advocating for Meaningful Access Orders and Agreements in Child and Family Services Proceedings.
After a child has been removed from their home under the Child, Family, and Community Service Act (CFCSA), access orders and agreements are critical to protecting the child’s relationships and community and cultural connections. However, parent’s counsel confront legal, cultural, and practical barriers when seeking meaningful access arrangements on behalf of their clients.
This webinar brought together a panel of parent’s counsel and community advocates to discuss the lived realities of access arrangements within the colonial legal system, the importance of proactive advocacy in relation to access, and strategies for parent’s counsel to secure increased access through negotiation and litigation. The panel also discussed the use of test cases and novel legal arguments to evolve the case law on access issues.
The webinar marked the launch of West Coast LEAF’s Access Toolkit, a parent’s counsel’s guide to advocacy on issues of access. The Toolkit discusses the state of the law on obtaining and enforcing access orders under ss. 55 and 56 of the CFCSA. It also provides parent’s counsel with strategies, practice tips, and template materials to support effective access advocacy.