A Vancouver-based group has called upon the federal government to scrap the spanking law across Canada.
Corinne’s Quest wants the government to “abolish physical punishment of children”, like many other countries around the world have done.
Specifically, they would like to see a repeal of Section 43 of the Criminal Code.
Known as ‘The Spanking Law‘, it is controversial “in that it expressly offers parents and teachers a defence when they use reasonable force to discipline a child.”
Section 43 of the Criminal Code reads:
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Every schoolteacher, parent or person standing in the place of a parent is justified in using force by way of correction toward a pupil or child, as the case may be, who is under his care, if the force does not exceed what is reasonable under the circumstances.
The defence of reasonable correction appeared in Canada’s first Criminal Code in 1892 and little has changed since then.
In 2004, the Supreme Court of Canada released its decision on whether section 43 is unconstitutional. Six of the nine justices concluded it did not violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and three justices dissented.
More than 40 countries worldwide have banned physical punishment of children.
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