By Sheldon Spackman

Local fathers rally in support of their parenting rights

May 28, 2018 | 1:48 PM

A small group of local fathers rallied in support of fathers’ rights in front of the Red Deer Courthouse Monday morning.

They say the court system favours mothers over fathers.

Group spokesperson Matias Battauz of Red Deer says he’s currently embroiled in a six-year-long custody battle with his ex and as a result, he hasn’t had any contact with his children in over 13 months.

He says he’s at the point now where he has to start over.

“I can’t afford a lawyer, there’s no resources for dads like me who either make too little or make too much,” explains Battauz. “I’m raising awareness because I know I’m not the only one going through this stuff. I feel like something needs to change because this is not fair to dads and at the end of the day, it’s not fair for the children. Children need both parents.”

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Battauz says fathers should have the same parenting rights as mothers so they too can be a part of their children’s lives even if the parents split or divorce.

“It would be a whole lot easier to just walk away, but I’m not that guy. I want to be there, they’re my kids as well, I love them with all my heart and unfortunately I’ve been pushed away from them.”

He says after having shared custody for a while, his ex came forward with an allegation that has now taken his kids out of his life.

“At the end of the day, my hope is that somebody listens and somebody looks at this big problem,” states Battauz. “The problem is getting bigger. There are people that can’t deal with the situation anymore mentally and they’ve taken their own lives and we have to stop that. I know they can do better and they should be doing better because it’s just not fair for the kids, it’s not fair for the father or for the mothers that are going through these battles.”

Jean-Paul Savard, also of Red Deer, says he, too, is just trying to get the word out that there’s lots of brokenness in the family court system.

“That brokenness exists because of unfair judgements being made in the courts that effectively remove fathers from the family nucleus,” adds Savard. “We’re here to speak out about it, there’s atrocities happening, lives are being ruined and nothing is being done about it. I’ve been through the trenches, I’m fighting to see my son and have a relationship with him now because of a parent order that was awarded in the courts.”

However, he says the current system is still vulnerable to what he describes as the ‘silver bullet’ where one spouse can falsely accuse the other of an assault to gain the upper hand in divorce proceedings and custody battles.

“We want to see that if any proof of perjury is exposed, they take that into consideration and actually charge someone with perjury for once,” Savard exclaims. “There’s so many false allegations in these family courts that effectively remove the father from the child’s life and that’s one of the atrocities I speak of. The other thing we would like to see is a presumed 50/50 shared custody upon divorce so there’s none of this 100 per cent to mom and zero per cent to dad.”

“Every time, they take just one side of the story instead of just taking a breather and taking both sides,” Battauz concludes. “Every story has two sides, they need to find the truth, but they just avoid it.”