In Terri's case, the result was a 10-page affidavit alleging not that her husband was physically abusive, but that he displayed characteristics one might expect in an alcoholic. Later, the full import of her actions sank in. Their propensity to stereotype all fathers in custody battles as abusive and all mothers as besieged victims came as no surprise to lawyers and community activists alarmed by the role shelters now play in divorce matters. Ms. Baragar, herself, has used the tactic on behalf of her own clients. It depends on the judge.
Some judges are more cautious than others.
In 1995, a Manitoba shelter worker wrote a two-page letter on behalf of a resident. But in 1997, after hearing submissions from the woman's spouse and the Winnipeg Child and Family Services, a judge came to a different conclusion. Only in her early 20s, the woman had already made seven sexual abuse complaints to police involving 11 different people. But this woman's maternal track record was in fact less than stellar. Four years earlier, the Children's Aid Society had successfully convinced a court that she was a danger to her son and an older daughter, then aged 12, who did not accompany her to the shelter.