I had the shelter and the women's movement on my side. 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. I mean, you've got sort of a 'professional' now saying he shouldn't see his kids. 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.
But in that particular case he was absolutely denied access. He got absolutely nowhere. 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 eleven different people.