Florence Ashley, law professor at University of Alberta, said the notion of parental rights is a US-based ideology and does not exist in Canada. .Ashley, who has a doctorate in trans-youth in family law in Canada, recorded a four-minute TikTok video that attempts to dismantle the concept of Canadian parents having rights over their children. .“Parental rights are very much an American idea, one that does not really exist in Canada, in part because Canada is signatory to the conventions on the rights of the child,” Ashley claimed in the video. “Parents don’t have constitutional rights vis-a-vis their children.”.Ashley attempted to establish while parents have authority over their child per se, until the child decides otherwise. .“They have entitlements, authority, power over their children, but that power, that authority, has to be exercised for the benefit of the child,” Ashley said. “Parents often speak in vernacular of the right to see their child, but really it’s the child that has a right to see their parent and that right ceases the moment it’s not beneficial to them.”.“It is not a right of the parent, it is a right of the child that the parents exercise,” Ashley continued. “And that is how we generally think of things in Canada.”.The law professor said when someone talks about parental rights, they “are adopting wholesale, US-based narrative and ideology.”.“But it does not make much legal sense in Canada, it is a distinctly US narrative,” Ashley added. “To such an extent that there are parental rights in Canada, it is more in a vernacular sense, not in any sort of real substantive legal sense and certainly not in a constitutional sense. So their arguments are kind of bollocks.”.“There is a lot of clear precedent around it and law that seeks to the specific autonomy that you have,” Ashley said. “So when people tell you about parental rights, tell them there is no such thing."."There are children’s rights, children’s rights to have their best interests be paramount in any decision concerning them. And the moment that parental involvement and parental decisions diverge from that, parents lose their authority and entitlement, and that is the right thing to do if you want to protect children in any way, shape, or form.”.However, according to John Carpay of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, past Supreme Court of Canada rulings show the opposite of Ashley’s assertions. .“This lawyer clearly has not read Supreme Court of Canada rulings, and the declaration that Canadians have no parental rights is probably wishful thinking on her part,” Carpay told the Western Standard on Tuesday.“ Parents have ‘Liberty’ interests under section seven of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”.“Section seven guarantees the right to life, liberty and security,” Carpay said. “Parents have a ‘liberty’ interest in being able to raise their children and make decisions about their children.” .“Now that ‘liberty’ interest can be negated if the parents are severely neglectful or abusive, then of course there can be a time or place where the government can remove children from bad parents, or place conditions or restrictions on parental care. Those are the exceptions. The starting point is parents have a right to raise and educate their children.”.“Those three sections, life, liberty, and security, were expounded in numerous court rulings. The words of the charter are quite short. But section seven has been referenced in regards to euthanasia, abortion, the right to purchase private health care, and the right to use drugs. .“The Charter, the charter itself does not mention parental rights expressly, but section seven has been interpreted by the courts to include parental rights. So to defer that these do not exist in Canadian law, is a decision of ignorance.”
