Ontario Bans Sharia Arbitration
The provincial government of Ontario passed legislation this week that bans the use of binding religious arbitration to settle family law matters, like divorce and child custody.
The government was driven to pass the law by a public pressure campaign that took off last year against the possibility that a controversial set of Muslim rules and guidelines known as sharia would be used under the Arbitration Act, 1991. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation prepared a brief backgrounder on the controversy.
Bill 27 passed this week modifies the Arbitration Act, the Child and Family Services Act and the Family Law Act. Under the new legislation:
In her December 2004 report entitled Dispute Resolution in Family Law: Protecting Choice, Promoting Inclusion, Boyd recommended that sharia be allowed in family arbitration matters, an idea that sparked a wide-ranging debate pitting various feminist, progressive and liberal Moslem and multicultural groups against more conservative religious Moslem organizations as well as certain Jewish groups.
Other sources on the issue:
The government was driven to pass the law by a public pressure campaign that took off last year against the possibility that a controversial set of Muslim rules and guidelines known as sharia would be used under the Arbitration Act, 1991. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation prepared a brief backgrounder on the controversy.
Bill 27 passed this week modifies the Arbitration Act, the Child and Family Services Act and the Family Law Act. Under the new legislation:
- family arbitration is "conducted exclusively in accordance with the law of Ontario or of another Canadian jurisdiction"
- when a family arbitration matter is decided by "a third person in a process that is not conducted exclusively in accordance with the law of Ontario or of another Canadian jurisdiction (...) the decision is not a family arbitration award and has no legal effect"
- the government can pass regulations requiring that "every arbitrator who conducts a family arbitration be a member of a specified dispute resolution organization or of a specified class of members of the organization (... [and]) to have received training, approved by the Attorney General, that includes training in screening parties for power imbalances and domestic violence"
In her December 2004 report entitled Dispute Resolution in Family Law: Protecting Choice, Promoting Inclusion, Boyd recommended that sharia be allowed in family arbitration matters, an idea that sparked a wide-ranging debate pitting various feminist, progressive and liberal Moslem and multicultural groups against more conservative religious Moslem organizations as well as certain Jewish groups.
Other sources on the issue:
- Bibliography from the Boyd Report
- Sharia is Neither Islamic nor Canadian (Muslim WakeUp!): a commentary from a Toronto professor who is a member of a progressive Moslem organization
- Islamic Institute of Civil Justice links: the Institute had approached the Ontario government a few years ago to express an interest in setting up a sharia-based arbitration process
- Finding the Law: Islamic Law (Sharia) - a research guide from LLRX.com - see in particular the section "Treatment of Islamic Law In Western Courts"
Labels: government_Ontario, legislation, religion
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