On Wednesday, April 1, 1998, Dorian Baxter addressed the Parliamentary  Special Joint Committee on Child Custody and Access.  This excerpt is taken from the original transcript... Rev. Dorian Baxter: Honourable members of the Special Joint Committee on Child Custody and Access, I wish to first of all express my gratitude on behalf of the National Association for Public and Private Accountability for the privilege of appearing before you here this morning.   Let me be swift to point out that although I'm here as an educator currently in the Ontario school system, as an ordained priest with the Anglican Church of Canada, and as chairman of the National Association for Public and Private Accountability, my primary purpose is to speak out today on behalf of those who are not able to speak for themselves. I refer to the children of our great land.   I want you to know at the outset that I, along with literally—and this is not an exaggeration—hundreds of thousands of Canadians, am no longer willing to sit idly by and watch the emotional and mental torment inflicted upon the innocent children of our great land by the present child custody and access laws. Enough is enough.   While I am personally grateful that this Special Joint Committee on Child Custody and Access has been formed, to my mind it is absolutely essential beyond anything I could express here today that this committee somehow be empowered to effect the changes that are so desperately needed, or it will be an exercise in futility meeting here today.   Let me also be swift to point out that my comments and concerns regarding custody and child access arise out of devastating personal bitter experience. I'm sure my successful custody battle is well known across the country, and I shall not go into details. But my successful lawsuit against Marion vanden Boomen and the Durham Children's Aid Society has indeed set a precedent and made legal history.   The price, ladies and gentlemen, beyond any manner of human comprehension is too much for any Canadian to have to pay—any man, woman or child in this great land of ours. I would say to you that Judge Somers and subsequently the Ontario Court of Appeal found Marion vanden Boomen of the Durham Children's Aid Society to be guilty of the grossest negligence, the grossest incompetence and malicious prosecution, including blackmail of myself. Yet this woman wasn't even given a reprimand and continues to work for the Ontario Children's Aid Society with complete impunity and not even a consequence.   We need accountability, hence the uprising of the National Association for Public and Private Accountability under my leadership. There must be clear consequences that will clearly put an end to this destructive and costly behaviour. I would share with you that my devastating circumstances cost me nearly $400,000. I presently stagger under a debt load well in excess of $250,000, which our legal system allowed to happen because I had to declare bankruptcy. I am paying those debts back if it takes me the rest of my life, but the price emotionally to my daughters, myself, my friends, and family is unbelievable.   This is all due to the fact that the present adversarial system in child custody and access disputes lends itself perfectly to what I view to be the weapon of choice in such matters: false allegations of sexual or other types of abuse. I am led to believe that the actions of Marion vanden Boomen and the Durham Children's Aid proceeding against me, purely it turns out to cover their mistakes, has actually cost the Ontario government and hence the taxpayers an unbelievable $1.5 million to $2 million.   My first recommendation to this honourable committee is to cease paying lip service to mediation in resolving marital and child custody disputes. The present adversarial approach is archaic, inflammatory, and utterly counter-productive. It lends itself to one of the greatest crimes of all in our courts today and one of the most rampant, which is perjury. Far from being in the best interests of the child and the family, it is designed to be destructive in its win-lose approach.   We must see an end to this insanity. I strongly urge and beseech the committee to establish mandatory mediation in child custody access disputes, following such fair and equitable guidelines as those put out by Mr. Vernon Beck. These guidelines clearly put forth the best interests of the child within the family.   Two, joint custody must be automatic, placing the child's need and right to maintain a loving relationship with both parents far above the need of one parent to destroy the other.   Third, we need to establish across this land, which NAPPA is in the process of doing, a civilian child protection welfare review board. These boards can occupy every major city and town across Canada and can be called upon to provide valuable checks and balances in scrutinizing the actions, or inactions, of those responsible for providing public social services. This can save the government millions of dollars.   The fourth recommendation would be to implement what I have called the “GNPSA”, or the gender-neutral problem-solving approach, to each and every child custody and access dispute that raises its ugly head across our fair land.   The fifth recommendation is for a return to the democratic process. No more French law with regard to these heinous allegations. Why in every other allegation is it innocent until proven guilty, but with child sexual abuse or any form of abuse it's automatic guilt? I have struggled; I still have people who won't talk to me today.   Some bishops—many of them have now straightened around their act—even came to court against me. Bishop Taylor Pryce, on behalf of the Children's Aid Society.... What an insult to a priest in the Church of God. I have struggled with vigilante groups who have wanted to castrate me, to kill me, because they thought I was guilty: no smoke without fire. This has to stop, ladies and gentlemen.   Six, let's license these social workers who have so much power.   Seven, perjury must have consequences that are clearly carried out.   Finally, at all times—please—and in all circumstances we must remember the watchwords in every child and custody access dispute: children first.   Thank you very much.   Voices: Hear, hear.   The Joint Chair (Mr. Roger Gallaway): Thank you very much.