Page 12-The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, November 2, 1989
M-T
JOHN SYRTASH
JOHN SYRTASH is a Toronto lawyer whose preferred area of practice is family law. His advice is in general terms only and not meant to "replace a personal consultation with a lawyer. Questions can be mailed to Syrtash at Poole Mil-Ugan Hutchinson Syrtash, Suite 300,2040 Yonge St., Toronto M4S' 1Z9.
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QUESTION:
I am a divorced man with access to two young children ages six and eight years old. No one ar-.gues with the very strong links I have with my children. The children have grown up in Toronto and know no other environment. My ex-wife, the childrenS' ihotheri has custody of the children pursuant to the same Court order that gave me access. She has now announced her intention to move back to Montreal. We alisp have a separation agreement which stipulates the same access and custody i-pgnirf mpnt<; as is ron-
tained in the Ontario court order. Neither the court ordernor the separation agreement permits my wife to do what she plans to do. But then again, it doesnH prevent her from doing so either. Can I prevent my wife from moving to Montreal with her children? I have a modest income and a job with regular hours from which I cannot vary. The time and expense of travelling to Montreal every second weekend and one night a week (the current access arrangement) would not be feasible. .ANSWER:.; ;;'
There is simply no easy answer to your question in Ontario. Moving the child's residence following a custody award is an issue that has been decided upon the facts of each case, with very little guidance or direction provided by the bntario Court of Appeal, there are leading cases with similar facts as yours with opposite results which the Court of Appeal has confirmed. In one case the custodial parent was permitted'tomove, as she.was the most suitable custodial parent. In that case it was thought that the wife needed to adopt a new life. However, in a similar case in Ontario the custodial mother was refused permission to move to England, even though she had met a person she wished to marry there,
Permission refused in celebrated case
In another celebrated case within the Jewish community a custodial mother was refused permission to move to New York City, where she had been born and raised, althougbher brief marrjed life in Toronto was at the request of her husband. The tHal judge concluded that if the children moved to New York, the move would rupture the contact between the. father and the children; In that case the children and father had a close relationship, as did the paternal grandparent.s. Xhe Court felt that such a move would also interfere with the children's connections in Toronto.
General principles favor the parent with cusitody
Traditionally it appears that you are in-a difficult position. As a matter of general principle, once a parent has been awarded custody he has the right to moveout of the jurisdiction without the permission of-the other parent.
However, if access is. to be so frustrated by the miove as to completely sever the relationship with the access-parent, then in the absence of a negotiated settlement 6f the matter, it might be wise to challenge the move given the current chaos thaf e3(ists in the law of this area. " Hopefully, your problem can be solved by mediation. Atthe very Jeast, you may wish to request a psychological assessment~or social study of the children's needs by a qualified family and child psychologist or social worker trained to do court-ordered assessments. Failing agreements, such an assessment may well bcyoiir best weapon if you decide to contest the matter-in-court. Of course. I am assuming that your relationship with the children is as strong as you say it is. ; .
Dodi Rudson speaks out
By' - . RONGSILLAG
TORONTO -
"We're tptally devastated. We're being left to drown alone. But we're not going to."
Dodi Rudson chooses her words carefully, but she can barely conceal her anguish, not to mention her conviction that the National Council of Jewish Women of Canada (Toronto Section) has b^n ostracized by the community, left to fend for itself in the murky wake of the Houlden inquiry.
"I don't see any support for us out there," said the section's executive directoi-.in an interview; "It's as if : we've been abandoned ... isolated. .
"What we need now is moral support, understanding and appreciation for the _past 100 years of caring (by the NCJW). We're all fighting for the same thing — the survival of all Jewish organizations." ,
Despite- .the public inquiry into alleged misappropriation of the charity's funds and improper payments to politicians, the section is still very much in business, Rudson says.
In January, Toronto Section is planning a "Manhattan Dessert Scene," a fundraiser in which two top chefs from New York will come to demonstrate baking techniques.
In the meantime, the section has more pressing concerns, chief, among them the prospect of bankruptcy.
Last week, the provincial government announced that it wants the section to repay money Queen's Park says was spent improperly.
Rudson says she doesn't know how much the section is being told to pay back, although one
Toronto newspaper put the Hgure at $800,000, payable to three ministries.
"We're negotiating with the different ministries. We don't actually know how much we owe:"
The only outstanding sum known for certain, Rudson says, and which has already been repaid, is a $250,000 sales tax rebate from the Ministry of Housing for the NCJW-. sponsored Prince Charles housing project.
That sum went into a capital account controlled by Starr, Rudson says.
Some of the money was improperly channelled to politicians, Hugh Paisley, Ontario's Public Trustee, told the inquiry earlier.
"But that's just about paid back," Rudson says. ' 'The money is there. People who got it .(th& rebates-have paid it back."
However, that's not the case with other amounts owing. On top of the $250,000, the section is said to owe $350,000 for a matching grant from the then-Ministry of Citizenship and Culture to renovate the section's offices — a sum never matched by the section and $200,000 to the Ministry of Community and Social ■ Services for the purchase and operation of a bus for the disabled. ^
Last week. Community and Social Services Minister Charles Beer said a repayment schedule would be devised 1'- for those dollars wrongly spent" by the foundation.
Also last week, over 300 people attended an emer-. gency meeting at the section's headquarters to plan
......a course of action on how
to repay the money.
says.
"VVe may have to sell the building (Council House). The situation is terribly bleak."
The inquiry heard that apart from the sales tax rebate, the so-called capital fund run by Starr received money from Tridel, the developer that built the Prince Charies project. Tridel's president. ElvioDel Zotlo, is head of the Ontario wing of the federal Liberal party.
"It was a general understanding that funds we didn't raise came from Tridel," testified Eti Young, a former .section board member. "I didn't know the reasons why."
Young added she had no inkling that money from the fund was being used to reimburse section members for political donations Starr routinely asked them to .makc; Many of these donations went to Ontario Liberals.
. The inquiry has already heard that Tridel would reimburse the section for political contributions.
Starr is alleged to haye funnelled over $85,000 to politicians through the cap-
ital fund.
. Young said it was "regular practice" for Starr and Nita Goldband, another section executive and a member of its charitable foundation, to ask section members for donations to a long list of federal, provincial and municipal politicians. The members would then receive tax receipts.
Young said she believed, ■ the fund to be controlled by Starr, Goldband and Leslie Miller, the only three people to have control over the charitable foundation.
Young testified that fellow volunteer Marsha Slavens was asked to become an officer of the fund, but that she declined. "She never elaborated on the reasons why."
Most of Young's evidence was corroborated by Phyllis Moss, a section' volunteer, who also told the inquiry that' Starr. Goldband and Miller had plans to build a second non-profit housing project sponsored by the Toronto Section.
As with other section witnesses,- Moss said she
did not know that Tridel was paying the charity ''consulting fees," allegedly in return for the section's expediting of municipal zoning changes.
In her final day of testimony, Betty Stone, the section's former executive director, said volunteers who made political donations were paid back through a boutique run by Starr, which was in turn reimbursed by Tridel. Stone said she was never told that the charity was being paid back by Tridel.
The inquiry also heard that a lawsuit for wrong-ful dismissal filed by Stone, who was fired by Starr in 1987, was settled out of court because it was feared that Stone would "air" the charity's "dirty linen."
In all, the inquiry was told, Tridel paid the section and the foundation over $100,000 for consulting work between 1985 and 1987. _ .
The inquiry, now in its fifth week, is probing the relationship between Starr, Tridel and certain provincial officials.
Bankrupcty for the
Toronto Secti6n"isTiol"oiijt of the questioii, Rudson
Forest, brush fires decrease in first nine months of '89
The Canadian Society for the Weizmann Institute of Science
announces the
Wednesday, December 6, 1989
8 p.m. Montefiore Club 1195 Guy Street Montreal, Quebec
R.S.V.P. (416)
James F. Kay Chairman of the Board
H. piomas Beck President
NBC Studios
Vancouver's Stanley Park
Beverley Hills
JERUSALEM (JPFS)-
Forest and brush fires decreased drastically in the Jerusalem area in the first nine months of this year compared with the same period of 1988, the Jerusalem fire department has reported. The number of
brusb fires fell by 75 per
cent and the number of trees
destroyed decreased by 61
per cent to 133,500 trees.
However, damage to natural groves grew by 35 per cent, as 23,885 dunams were destroyed.
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The Jewish Quiz
QUESTIONS:
.....,1. Name the religious duty of a woman (or baker) separating and burning a small portion of dough when baking.
2. In ease wine is lacking, what can be used for kiddush?
3. Along with the evening kiddush, at what other time is a kiddush recited?
ANSWERS: , . ■ 1. Taking-challah. 2^ Bread or challah. 3. On the morning of
Edmond Y. Lipsitz
the Sabbath or festival before the first meal.
The.se questions and answers came fromihe' book 6400 Questions About Judaism and the Jewish People by Edmond Y. Lipsitz, recently published by JESL Educational Products, Downsview.
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