# Quebec Court overturns father's grounding of 12-year-old kid
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-court-overturns-fathers-grounding-of-12-year-old-kid/453447
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [June 19, 2008, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-court-overturns-fathers-grounding-of-12-year-old-kid/453447 "2008-06-19T06:25:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2008, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-court-overturns-fathers-grounding-of-12-year-old-kid/453447/21 "2008-06-19T19:31:00Z")
Party pooper says What?
I’d like to enter into evidence that “Because I said so.” has plenty of Canadian precedence, too.
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### Author:  [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2008, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-court-overturns-fathers-grounding-of-12-year-old-kid/453447/22 "2008-06-19T19:34:09Z")
[QUOTE=Freddy the Pig]
Counsel for said alleged co-conspirator responds that he _ **IS NOT!!!** _
[/QUOTE]
An amicus curiae has been filed contending _ **IS TOO!** _
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### Author:  [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2008, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-court-overturns-fathers-grounding-of-12-year-old-kid/453447/23 "2008-06-19T19:38:45Z")
[QUOTE=Marienee]
What the court said (as I understand it) was that she could go on the school trip and the father was unreasonable in refusing to consent. He cannot effectively ground her as she does not live with him.
[/QUOTE]
Well according to one of the lawyers in the second article linked the girl did not go to live with her mother until the dad grounded her from going on the trip. If that is the case then at the time the grounding happened she was living with her dad and thus he did have authority to ground her.
> [@](#):
>
> But while Ms. Beaudoin says the girl went to live with her mother when her father forbade her from going on the trip, Ms. Fortin contends that she was “kicked out” of her father’s house over family tensions.
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2008, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-court-overturns-fathers-grounding-of-12-year-old-kid/453447/24 "2008-06-19T19:51:11Z")
Bring back corporal punishment, I say! Let’s see a judge overturn a good sound spanking.
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2008, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-court-overturns-fathers-grounding-of-12-year-old-kid/453447/25 "2008-06-19T20:09:09Z")
[QUOTE=Really Not All That Bright]
Bring back corporal punishment, I say! Let’s see a judge overturn a good sound spanking.
[/QUOTE]
Canada’s about to outlaw that too…🙂
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### Author:  [@Marienee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marienee)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2008, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-court-overturns-fathers-grounding-of-12-year-old-kid/453447/26 "2008-06-19T20:27:50Z")
[QUOTE=Tahssa]
Well according to one of the lawyers in the second article linked the girl did not go to live with her mother until the dad grounded her from going on the trip. If that is the case then at the time the grounding happened she was living with her dad and thus he did have authority to ground her.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, the lawyers aren’t doing their clients any favors in this either. His authority is not the question. It is academic. If she lives somewhere else, what’s he going to do, call her up on the telephone and say “you’re grounded”?
He forbade her from going, she played both ends against the middle and asked mom, mom said she could go. She moved out of his house (whether because of that or not, who knows) and her mother signs the permission slip. The school won’t let her go without both signatures (and who can blame them, these guys have been litigating for a decade and obviously have no compunctions about involving third parties). He won’t sign because she is “grounded”. Her mother’s lawyer files a motion in court in the child’s name. The court says she can go and orders him to give her permission.
That seems to be how it went.
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2008, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-court-overturns-fathers-grounding-of-12-year-old-kid/453447/27 "2008-06-19T20:31:38Z")
[QUOTE=Antinor01]
An amicus curiae has been filed contending _ **IS TOO!** _
[/QUOTE]
We’ll have to cite the precedent _Rubber v. Glue_.
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### Author:  [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2008, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-court-overturns-fathers-grounding-of-12-year-old-kid/453447/28 "2008-06-19T20:31:57Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace]
Yeah, but that’s in US court. This case is in Canada. 😃
[/QUOTE]
Now all we need is for the girl to bring in her [psychic evidence of sexual abuse](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=472346) and dad’s off to the big house.
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### Author:  [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2008, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-court-overturns-fathers-grounding-of-12-year-old-kid/453447/29 "2008-06-19T20:47:15Z")
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers]
We’ll have to cite the precedent _Rubber v. Glue_.
[/QUOTE]
I believe that was overturned by the ruling in _Sticks and Stones v. Words_.
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### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2008, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-court-overturns-fathers-grounding-of-12-year-old-kid/453447/30 "2008-06-19T20:52:39Z")
[QUOTE=Captain Amazing]
Canada’s about to outlaw that too…🙂
[/QUOTE]
Unfortunately so.
The argument always was, well if they take away the right for a parent to spank then what rights will be taken away next?
I think we just got the answer to that.
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2008, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-court-overturns-fathers-grounding-of-12-year-old-kid/453447/31 "2008-06-19T20:53:59Z")
[QUOTE=Leaffan]
The argument always was, well if they take away the right for a parent to spank then what rights will be taken away next?
[/QUOTE]
Meh. As long as they’re not taking away the rights of parents to spank _one another_…
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### Author:  [@rayh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rayh)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2008, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-court-overturns-fathers-grounding-of-12-year-old-kid/453447/32 "2008-06-19T21:14:06Z")
[QUOTE=Little Nemo]
I’m going to deny that motion on the grounds that Jimmy’s Dad does not have jurisdiction in this venue.
[/QUOTE]
Consel for Jimmy asserts, “My dad is bigger than your dad.”
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2008, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-court-overturns-fathers-grounding-of-12-year-old-kid/453447/33 "2008-06-19T21:16:03Z")
[QUOTE=rayh]
Consel for Jimmy asserts, “My dad is bigger than your dad.”
[/QUOTE]
Counsel, your rebuttal?
-“So is your mom!”
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### Author:  [@rayh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rayh)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2008, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-court-overturns-fathers-grounding-of-12-year-old-kid/453447/34 "2008-06-19T21:28:00Z")
[QUOTE=Really Not All That Bright]
Counsel, your rebuttal?
-“So is your mom!”
[/QUOTE]
Mom’s counsel issues a statement saying, “My client would like it to be known that she has a thyroid problem which has caused her certain weight-related issues. My client also states that she knows your mother, and she would be ashamed of your behaviour young man.”
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### Author:  [@emmaliminal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emmaliminal)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2008, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-court-overturns-fathers-grounding-of-12-year-old-kid/453447/35 "2008-06-19T21:31:40Z")
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers]
We’ll have to cite the precedent _Rubber v. Glue_.
[/QUOTE]
\*(wipes tear) \*I… I love you people!
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### Author:  [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2008, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-court-overturns-fathers-grounding-of-12-year-old-kid/453447/36 "2008-06-20T01:31:34Z")
[QUOTE=Captain Amazing]
Canada’s about to outlaw that too…🙂
[/QUOTE]
In school, or for parents at home? The latter would be very disconcerting..
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### Author:  [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2008, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-court-overturns-fathers-grounding-of-12-year-old-kid/453447/37 "2008-06-20T02:00:17Z")
[QUOTE=jtgain]
In school, or for parents at home? The latter would be very disconcerting..
[/QUOTE]
Both.
[http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080618/spanking\_senate\_080618/20080618?hub=Canada](http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080618/spanking_senate_080618/20080618?hub=Canada)
But then, with cases like these, you kind of see where the motivation is from:
[http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=034c3f40-7e7f-4d5a-a566-5aee11352aa8](http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=034c3f40-7e7f-4d5a-a566-5aee11352aa8)
The random video clips CTV is using to advertise their coverage of the law is also pretty shocking, IMHO.
I don’t know how I feel about the law, as I haven’t read it, nor thought much about it’s implications. But I know I was never spanked, nor were my siblings, and we turned out to be respectful, decent human beings, so in a way, “to spank or not to spank” is not even an issue for me; since I didn’t experience it, I don’t think it’s something I’d use/do to my still-hypothetical children.
Sorry for the hijack!
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### Author:  [@Khampelf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khampelf)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2008, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-court-overturns-fathers-grounding-of-12-year-old-kid/453447/38 "2008-06-20T02:01:16Z")
[QUOTE=Antinor01]
An amicus curiae has been filed contending _ **IS TOO!** _
[/QUOTE]
Counsel for said alleged co-conspirator responds with a writ of reductio ad absurdium condending **NOT NOT NOT to infinity!** , and informs the court **LA LA LA LA, I can’t hear you!!!**
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### Author:  [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2008, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-court-overturns-fathers-grounding-of-12-year-old-kid/453447/39 "2008-06-20T05:10:03Z")
Heh. I don’t know how that piece of news reached Australia, because I hadn’t heard anything about it. It was nowhere in the national media around here. It seems that the _National Post_ was the only major paper to report on this; they must have found it interesting for some reason. Since it happened in my hometown of Gatineau, I checked the local press, and they did report on it; they ran [an editorial](http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20080617/CPOPINIONS/806170353/7176/CPDROIT) basically saying that this case shouldn’t have found the inside of a courtroom and that the lawyers should have acted as mediators instead. I tried to find the actual court decision, in order to get the facts, but it oddly isn’t online (yet) even though other decisions from a few days ago are there already. Maybe it’ll appear in the next few days, and if so I’ll link to it.
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2008, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quebec-court-overturns-fathers-grounding-of-12-year-old-kid/453447/40 "2008-06-20T06:58:14Z")
[QUOTE=Really Not All That Bright]
“I hereby sentence you to go to your room, young man”
[/QUOTE]
“But Your Honor, his room has a TV, a stereo, a Wii, a phone, and a computer.”
“Very well, I sentence you to go to your parents’ room.”
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