Corporal punishment and the law with Dr. Joan Durrant

The CPA recently sent a letter of support for Bill S-251, Nova Scotia Senator Stan Kutcher’s bill that would repeal Section 43 of the Criminal Code of Canada. It would make it illegal to hit children for any reason. This has been a very long, very arduous process and effort. Dr. Joan Durrant has been campaigning for this for more than 30 years, while dozens of other countries around the world have listened to the science and the evidence and have adopted this policy. She joins us on Mind Full today to talk about the science, the outcomes, and the need to ban corporal punishment in Canada once and for all. Senator Kutcher is specifically requesting that letters be sent by postal mail to the following address (Postage is free to members of the Senate and House of Commons): Senator Stan Kutcher RE: End Corporal Punishment Senate of Canada Ottawa, ON K1A 0A4 Positive Discipline in Everyday Life (PDEL), a non-profit created by Dr. Durrant to promote health adult-child relationships https://pdel.org/ Link to the list of countries that have prohibited all corporal punishment of children: https://endcorporalpunishment.org/countdown/ Link to the International Day to End Corporal Punishment: https://www.end-violence.org/articles/international-day-endcorporalpunishment-2023 Links to the Joint Statement on Physical Punishment of Children and Youth: https://www.cheo.on.ca/en/about-us/physical-punishment.aspx https://www.cheo.on.ca/fr/about-us/physical-punishment.aspx What is “Discipline” in the Age of Children’s Rights? https://www.gov.mb.ca/healthychild/ncd/forum2015_what_is_discipline.pdf Ending the Physical Punishment of Children: A Guide for Clinicians and Practitioners https://www.apa.org/pubs/books/4317534 Twenty-Five Years of Physical Punishment Research: What Have We Learned? https://www.jkacap.org/journal/view.html?doi=10.5765/jkacap.2017.28.1.20#:~:text=Virtually%20without%20exception%2C%20these%20studies,%2C%20siblings%2C%20peers%20and%20spouses. Defining reasonable force: Does it advance child protection? https://cwrp.ca/publications/defining-reasonable-force-does-it-advance-child-protection Corporal Punishment and the Law in Global Perspective https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/28149/chapter-abstract/212939255?redirectedFrom=fulltext Link to the International Day to End Corporal Punishment: https://www.end-violence.org/articles/international-day-endcorporalpunishment-2023 Links to the Joint Statement on Physical Punishment of Children and Youth: https://www.cheo.on.ca/en/about-us/physical-punishment.aspx https://www.cheo.on.ca/fr/about-us/physical-punishment.aspx CPA was one of the first organizations to endorse the Joint Statement back in the mid-2000s. Book on repeal of Section 43 as an act of decolonization: https://uofmpress.ca/books/detail/decolonizing-discipline