Hi,

My name is Danny O.

I'm a truck mechanic so if you want to call me I ask that you make it after 8:00 p.m. and only if I have time to chat. It's better that you ask me to call you if you wish to speak with me personally. My first language is French. I live and work in 819 but my cell is 613.

My family matters started 12 and 6 years ago. The mother of my first child and I eventually settled our differences and today we are very good friends. She is an excellent mother and we both do what is best for our son.

My second family matter started 6 years ago. The mother has been diagnosed with a severe disorder which caused never ending litigation in a family court system that has less interest in the real needs of children and more interest in leaving children with mothers regardless of the evidence.

My first and only lawyer billed me  $35,000 and achieved absolutely nothing. Every time I went to court I had bad feelings however I didn't listen to those feelings.

The lawyer pursued his bill so aggressively that I was forced to go bankrupt. That didn't stop him from unsuccessfully trying to have his bill exempt from the bankruptcy.

Then an accountant friend recommended me to the Ottawa Men's Centre. At that time I was in serious trouble. The mother of my second child became concerned when my son announced he wanted to live with me. She became so paranoid that she went to see some feminist lawyer who told her the classic way of getting rid of a father, skip town. In my case she set it up to not just leave Ottawa but move to Europe for "employment reasons" and hit me with an emergency motion.

I could not afford a lawyer, and I needed help fast. I saw the Ottawa Men's Centre one evening and the next day I had all my documents ready to deal with the motion. It was reassuring to be able to speak to a lawyer who reviewed my documents before I filed them.

On the day of the motion, the mother walked into court with her nose really high in the air, full of conceited confidence that the judge would just rubber stamp her motion and she would be on the next flight to London.

The documents especially the affidavits from myself and 3 other people gave the judge a crystal clear picture of what had happened, the close relationship between my son and the real reasons behind her request for the move.

The judge gave her a lecture about the best interests of the child and refused to "rubber stamp" her application to remove my son from my life. The judge complimented me on the quality of my legal documents.

Interestingly, I did not have to make any arguments. It was obvious that my well prepared documents did their job, the judge did not need anything else and it was obvious he didn't want any arguments. That didn't go down to well with the mother, she spent the next half hour arguing with the judge about his decision and was not happy until he agreed with her on some minor point. I was amazed at that judges patience.

As I left the court room I high fived it with a  senior member of the Ottawa Men's Centre who came along to provide moral support.

I can say this, this was the first time in many court appearances, years of litigation and tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees that I felt good walking out of a courtroom.

This did not stop the mother, despite me having a temporary order in my favour, she brought "an emergency motion" for exactly the same order but somehow throwing in some "new evidence" that on the surface looked like it might actually succeed.

Again, I had almost no time to prepare, I was served the emergency motion outside the rules and a judge should not have even heard it. I'm sure it the genders were reversed the second motion would not have passed the screening process.

Again, the Ottawa Men's Centre provided emergency help producing some high quality documents again with last minute review by a lawyer before I handed them to the judge at the hearing of the motion.

This time, she really got bawled out by the judge, my carefully prepared cross-motion was successful which effectively permanently prevented her from attempting the same thing again. My cross-motion successfully brought in the involvement of another organization who I know are fully aware of the mother's problems.

I have met numerous Ottawa fathers who are members of the Ottawa Men's Centre. We socialize occasionally, help each other out especially in time of need. We all have different skills and the more the better.

If I can say one thing it is this, if you are just starting out in your family court battle, the sooner you contact the Ottawa Men's Centre the better off you will be. I only wish I had met them when my battle began.

Again, if you wish to speak to me personally, I'm available by phone after 8:00 p.m.

You can email me at

DannyO (at ) Ottawa Mens Centre (dot) com