Faced with warring ex-spouses besieging one another with threats and verbal abuse and dragging their children into it too, Ontario Superior Judge Joseph Quinn resorted to the only tool he had left – a highly unusual verbal roasting.
“Paging Dr. Freud, paging Dr. Freud,” Judge Quinn began a recent judgment that has gone viral in the family-law community. “Here, a husband and wife have been marinating in a mutual hatred so intense as to surely amount to a personality disorder requiring treatment. The source of difficulties is hatred: a hardened, harmful, high-octane hatred.”
Judge Quinn’s 31-page decision boils over with the frustrations of a family-law judge who is called upon time and again to referee bouts between couples who were once in love. He even takes a shot at family law itself, saying that spousal support is “the roulette of family law – blindfolds, darts and Ouija boards being optional.”
And he anticipates criticism of his tone: “The parties repeatedly have shown they are immune to reason. Consequently, in my decision, I have tried ridicule as a last resort.”
In a novel twist, Judge Quinn granted the wife, Catherine, sole custody of the feuding couple’s 13-year-old daughter. However, he ordered Larry to pay Catherine just a dollar a month in spousal support.
Judge Quinn expressed disgust with the way Catherine has induced her daughter to detest her father. “The harm is irreparable,” he said. “Generally, it is unwise to place an immature 13-year-old in charge of her life. Here, however, Catherine and [her current partner] have engineered an alienation that is so complete as to leave the court with no feasible option.”
Toronto lawyer Phil Epstein, an expert in family law, describes Judge Quinn as a respected jurist who was justified in ridiculing the couple. “I’m sure there will be some who criticize Justice Quinn for this,” he said. “But others will say that sometimes you have to step back and laugh at the foibles of mankind.”
Family law judges spent their time dealing with inflamed litigants whose stories are “highly conflicting and replete with inappropriate behaviour and misconduct,” Mr. Epstein said. “They use the courtroom as a forum for all the wrongs that have been done to them in their marriage. It is not surprising that some judges try to find a better way to help resolve their problems.”
Alternating caustic gibes with amusing observations, Judge Quinn portrayed Catherine – a 36-year-old school caretaker – and Larry, a labourer, as vile, foul-mouthed creatures who had burned through an enormous amount of police and court time waging their futile blitzkrieg.
He said that they cannot attend their son’s ball hockey games without erupting into loud conflict, and that Catherine once tried to run over Larry with a van. “This is always a telltale sign that a husband and wife are drifting apart,” Judge Quinn remarked dryly.
On three occasions, a niece of Catherine’s who is engaged to a Hells Angels biker called Larry to warn him that he would be shot dead, Judge Quinn said. “On Oct. 18, 2007, a nautical theme was added,” he remarked. “According to Larry, ‘Catherine’s sister-in-law yelled out her window that I was going to be floating in the canal dead.’”
Judge Quinn said that Larry, 38, possesses “a near-empty parenting tool box,” and was fond of venting his anger by sending Catherine insulting text messages and giving her ‘the finger’ as he drove by her home. “A finger is worth a thousand words and therefore, is particularly useful should one have a vocabulary of less than a thousand words,” Judge Quinn added.
Catherine gave her children “advanced animosity-tutoring,” and repeatedly denied Larry access to them, Judge Quinn said. He said that on one occasion, Larry and his daughter were thrown out of a McDonald’s restaurant because she was yelling that he was ‘a deadbeat.’
“This is language she would have learned from Catherine,” Judge Quinn noted. “They are the result of persistent, behind-the-scenes brainwashing by Catherine.”
He said that Catherine also warned the children several times that if they attempted to telephone their father, they would go to jail. She also once text messaged her daughter while she was on an access visit with Larry to ask: “Is dickhead there?”
Judge Quinn said that he foolishly called a four-month hiatus during the trial in the hope that Larry and Catherine could benefit from mediation. “It is touching how a trial judge can retain his naivety even after 15 years on the bench,” he said.
Justice Quin was right about one thing "this is yet another case that reveals
the ineffectiveness of Family Court" however the rest of of his decision is
"enough to make you puke".
His entire decision is typical of judges who 'hate litigants' and who lack the
wisdom and ability to find innovative solutions to specific problems. Quin's
decision is a 'slam the litigants' and at first glance, he gives the impression
that both are bad and that's then, That's why he will give a Blessing to the
mother to continue on engaging in parental alienation.
Quin's decision is a sickening typical example of "the Process of
Justification". That is, he had a preformed conclusion and made the evidence
fit. There is just one problem, the evidence to any reasonable person, begs
other solutions.
The fact that Quin, is devoid of appropriate solutions does not mean that all
other judges are similarly challenged. Other judges who come from a background
of family law, from an objective impartial history, who have a passion for the
job, treat it as a matter of professional pride in how they "find those
solutions".
The solutions are legislative, there needs to be a Legal Presumption of Equal
Parenting. If there was such a presumption, parents have only one choice, get
along or both their lives will be hell.
The reason why one parent generally a mother engages in parental alienation is
because She knows that if she objects, to equal parenting, SHE will get what
ever she wants, thanks to the gutless wonders who call themselves family court
judges.
Also a factor is the Child Support Guidelines that provide windfall winnings to
the successful mother that will put the father in poverty. In fact, Justice
Quinn provided the mother with the equivalent of a lottery winnings which will
impoverish the father and make his ability to even be a casual parent, or
litigate again, extremely difficult.
Family Court judges are like most Canadians, they DONT want to hear about
problems in relationships, its just so easy to wipe one of the map to get rid of
a case and that is exactly what J.W. Quinn has done.
Judges like most Canadians have a Taboo, a fear of mental health problems, they
don't want to even hear about but, when you have TWO parents in a war, at least
one and maybe both, have at least a personality disorder and or a mental health
problem or both.
Its the judiciary's refusal to acknowledge or deal with personality disorders
and mental health problems that precludes them from finding appropriate
solutions which should have been "mental health assessments for both parents".
Then, lets assume that Justice Quinn, got it all right, then both parents would
be required to undergo counseling, and, be required to write a 5,000 word essay
on why children need both parents, and how two separated parents can provide the
best environment for their children.
www.OttawaMensCentre.com
Continued - Justice Quinn Could have examined their essays, to be written
without any help within a three hour window. Their writings would have been
rather revealing, to any experienced judge who deserved to be a judge.
The SINGLE biggest reason why we have an "ineffective Family Court" is because
of Parliament's failure to have "mental health screening for the judiciary".
As a result, we have virtual psychopaths who having extremely high IQ's get the
highest LSAT marks and get into law school where their intelligence allows them
to portray themselves as they want portrayed and ten years after graduating and
fooling most people most of the time they get to be judges.
They can be charismatic, personable, extremely attractive, well dressed, who
even like Justice Cheryl Robertson, have the most talented hair dressers and use
just the right amount of make up and know how and when to smile to hide the fact
that they under that exterior lies a psychopath with a pathological hatred of
men and a willingness to "terminate" countless thousands of children from any
relationship what so ever with their father.
Robertson, is just one example of a disgrace to the Ontario Judiciary. She takes
obvious sadistic delight in making it quite clear she has a firm relationship
with a mother's lawyer and that its all a foregone conclusion before the father
is virtually drawn and quartered.
For the real psychopaths, the most vilest examples of humanity in the judiciary,
that award goes to the "Honourable Mr. Justice Allan Sheffield of Ottawa who
started out getting his reputation fora dysfunctional abnormal personality way
back in law school. (at least).
He is known from one end of the province to the other as "the worst judge ever".
Not that there are not others close behind him. Take Denis Power, who has a
pathological hatred of self represented litigants.
As Power says "Enough is Enough" its time for professional obstructors of
justice, the insults to justice, the psychopaths of the judiciary to be told to
resign and work in some field other than family law.
www.OttawaMensCentre.com
Before readers conclude that Justice Quinn ordered One Dollar of spousal
support as "punishment" for her behaviour, readers should remember that is
exactly what the mother agreed to in a separation agreement. Further, Quinn
found that he did not have the means to pay spousal support.
IF, Quinn, really wanted to send a message, he would have ordered that both
parents pay for their own counselling at their own expense and that expense
would continue until both showed evidence that they had changed their behaviour.
In the meanwhile, the children should have been ordered to reside in both homes
on alternate weeks.
If both parents had significant financial penalties, they would have had had no
other solution but to work together to get rid of the mutual chain around their
necks.
Quinn showed his stupidity in ordering "mediation".
When you have one or two Hitler style personalities, mediation is a sick , a
very sick joke that only acts as a rubber stamp of approval to the worst party,
the party holding the power, the one who had the control, and the sadistic
motivation to abuse that absolute power, the mother.
While Ontario and Canada fail to have a legal presumption of equal parenting,
the 33 Billion Scam of the Legal Cartel will continue and only get worse.
It's time for a real change and a reform of the judicial selection process and
mental health screening for the judiciary will be one of the first steps in
saving Canada billions of dollars in the costs of operating the scam of the
Legal Cartel called Family Court.
www.OttawaMensCentre.com
Quinn's opening shot in his decision sure smacks of a wanabee Judge Judy.
But, having an innovative creative first paragraph at least got people to read
his decision and it makes good reading.
From a decision writing perspective, it wins awards hands down.
Despite the decisions obvious failings, the litigants were lucky enough to
actually get a trial. If one of the parties had not been self represented, this
case most probably would never have reached trial due to the Legal Cartel's
influence upon the judiciary to ensure that self represented litigants are
treated as scumbags of society simply because they cannot afford a lawyer.
www.OttawaMensCentre.com
Read the Decision