High court backs right to spank (Canada) | National Post

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High court backs right to spank
Parents can strike children only if they use 'minor corrective force' of 'a trifling nature'

Janice Tibbetts
CanWest News Service

Saturday, January 31, 2004


Beverley McLachlin, Chief Justice of Canada,
upheld the country's spanking law yesterday,
but placed new legal boundaries -- including
age restrictions -- on the use of force.
CREDIT: Pierre Obendrauf, CanWest News Service

OTTAWA - The Supreme Court yesterday upheld the right of parents to spank their children but imposed specific limits on the practice.

By a 6-3 margin, the court upheld the 112-year-old Criminal Code defence -- known widely as the "spanking law" -- that allows parents and teachers to use "reasonable" force "by way of correction."

The judges, acknowledging that lower courts across the country have been all over the map in interpreting the law, devoted much of their judgment to defining what is reasonable.

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