Fathers seek support in custody battles
Last updated May 24 2005 05:29 PM EDT
CBC News
MONTREAL – Many fathers who are not even members of Fathers 4 Justice watched this weekend's events with sympathy and urgency.

 

Separated Fathers
  • Charitable organization working in the community and social sector.
  • Dedicated to supporting fathers in the transition that accompanies separation.
  • Open to separated men in general, but caters to men in crisis and to issues surrounding paternity issues.
  • Started in October 1997 by a group of volunteer separated fathers concerned with developing services aimed at their realities.
  • Since July 2000, Separated Fathers has had a permanent location that has allowed the creation of a living environment.
  • Serving primarily the Greater Montreal Area, Separated Fathers is accredited by the Régie Régionale de la Santé and by the Services Sociaux de Montréal-Centre.

    Source: separated-fathers.qc.ca
Fernando Gimeno heard the news about the man who climbed the Jacques Cartier Bridge and unfurled a banner demanding "parental equality."

 

 

The man who climbed the bridge is a member of Fathers 4 Justice (F4J), which aims to "expose the injustice that the family-law industry has become in this country, with a series of high-profile stunts and actions."

 

Gimeno said he understands how men can be pushed to such extremes.

 

"I believe these men are men that are at their last straw. Men that have lost everything and all they have left is to manifest their malcontent," Gimeno said.

 

"I understand and appreciate their efforts, however, climbing a bridge will get the attention and the cameras, it can also cost you your life. A dead father is not a good father, he's just dead. Then again, what's life worth without your children?"

 

Gimeno, 44, is a member of Separated Fathers, where he meets with other men once a week to "share feelings of guilt, hopelessness, anger, powerlessness, sadness, etc.," the Montrealer said.

 

Many fathers feel the legal system favours mothers in custody battles.

 

"Mothers have access to legal aid because it's automatically believed they're in dire straits. Meanwhile, the father is spending all of the family's holdings seeking justice," Gimeno said, noting it also takes the system a long time to resolve the smallest of issues.

 

He said his custody battle has cost him $50,000 over the past four years, and that it remains unsettled.

 

 

The father of two said that after four years of frustration, 15 court dates, nine judges, seven rulings and three lawyers, the support group gives him hope.

 

"I have been blessed to find a support group like Separated Fathers to help me deal with this turmoil. I can honestly say that if it weren't for their help in dealing with these problems, I would today be in jail full-time, peddling the streets, clinically depressed, or dead," Gimeno said.

Source

www.OttawaMensCentre.com

613-797-3237

613-797-DADS