Our experience taught us that the AMJC is responding to these legislative and social changes with careful and sensitive thought, insight and intellectual vigour. We are thankful for this opportunity.
Source/Credit: Riverdale Mediation
By Hilary Linton | January 23, 2013
In the fall of 2012, we were retained by Toronto’s Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama`at, Canada (AMJC) to provide training in family law, family arbitration law and procedure, and screening cases for power imbalances to its mediator-arbitrator members.
The AMJC provides a community-based conflict resolution process for Muslim couples who wish to resolve their matrimonial disputes within the community and in accordance with the principles of Islam. The process itself is quite ancient, involving the use of family representatives to support the couple to the extent that a reconciliation of the dispute and relationship is possible, and a formal arbitration process if it is not. Such processes are well-established in faith-based communities across North America.
In 2007 the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General changed the Arbitration Act and Family Law Act in ways that affected all family arbitrators, inside and outside faith communities. These positive changes have resulted in better arbitration procedures with better qualified arbitrators.
Among other things, the changes required that arbitrators apply the law of Ontario or Canada; that anyone participating in a family arbitration process must first obtain independent legal advice on the Arbitration Agreement; that all family arbitration decisions have a right of appeal; and that family arbitrators must confirm that the parties have first been screened for power imbalances to ensure they are suitable candidates for a private adjudicative process.
The new regulation also requires those providing arbitration services to receive specified training, including training in family law, and training in the tools and processes for screening parties for power imbalances.
All of us at Riverdale who helped deliver this training felt that we learned as much from the AMJC members as they learned from us. It was a rich lesson in cultural differences, history and the fascinating and complex intersection of secular and religious law. We were invited to participate in community events during our tenure at the beautiful Mosque and community centre north of Toronto. We were treated with the utmost of respect and kindness, features we came to recognize as hallmarks of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community. And we were respectfully challenged throughout the training by our “students”, who included businessmen, public school teachers, a Justice of the Peace, lawyers and medical doctors.
In her recently published book “Islamic Divorce in North America”, Dr. Julie MacFarlane examines the role of faith in Western Muslim marriage and divorce processes, and the extent to which processes such as those offered by the AMJC are embraced by men and women in the community as part of their religious and cultural identity. She also describes the challenges faced by such processes as they seek to adapt to growing rates of divorce within their communities and the evolution of the culture between generations.
Our experience taught us that the AMJC is responding to these legislative and social changes with careful and sensitive thought, insight and intellectual vigour. We are thankful for this opportunity.
This entry was posted in ADR Training, Arbitration, Collaborative Practice, Culture, Diversity, Domestic Violence, Family Law, Inspiration, Lawyers, Mediation, Parenting Coordination, Training and tagged Ahmadiyya, AMJC, family arbitration, family law, Julie MacFarlane, Muslim, screening for power imbalances. Bookmark the permalink.
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