Please join the Family Dispute Resolution Institute of Ontario for your Bi-Annual Domestic Violence Training
Please note that this training includes an online module provided through the Centre for Research & Education on Violence Against Women & Children as well as a full-day, live, virtual training session
Saturday January 24, 2026
9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Agenda
9:15 AM – 10:00 AM
Dr. Peter Jaffe | Self-Care for Professionals Dealing with Family Violence
Although we focus on the needs of survivors of family violence, we often forget to look after ourselves as lawyers and court related professionals trying to support family members to find safety and healing after violence. Lawyers, judges, mental health professionals and other professionals who become exposed to family violence and its aftermath in their work often experience vicarious trauma. Their clients flashbacks and nightmares become their flashbacks and nightmares. Beyond trauma and compassion fatigue, comes moral injury in which professionals lose hope in the very system they work in when those systems fall short and they witness harm to children and families. This session will focus on our growing knowledge of vicarious trauma and morale injury and what we can do to care for ourselves and each other by starting to acknowledge the problem and speak more openly about our experiences.
About Dr. Peter Jaffe | Peter Jaffe is a clinical psychologist and Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Education at the Western University and the Academic Director Emeritus of the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women & Children. He is also Director Emeritus of the London Family Court Clinic in London, Ontario. He has co-authored 12 books, 40 chapters and over 100 articles related to violence and abuse involving children, adults, families, and the justice system. Many of his publications and professional presentations deal with domestic violence, the impact of domestic violence on children, and child custody disputes. Since 1999, he has been on faculty for the US National Council of Juvenile & Family Court Judges for judicial education programs entitled “Enhancing Judicial Skills in Domestic Violence Cases” as well as advanced judicial education programs on child custody and supervised visitation. He has presented for Canadian judges at various National Judical Institute workshops over the past three decades. He was a founding member of Ontario’s Chief Coroner’s Domestic Violence Death Review Committee. In 2009 he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada for his work. In 2025 he received an honorary doctorate of law from the Law Society of Ontario.
10:00 AM – 10:45 AM
Dr. Lisa Heslop | Screening Overview
Dr. Lisa Heslop will review the key elements and importance of screening litigants for family violence using tools like the HELP Toolkit and the MASIC-S. She will introduce a new online guide––the e-SAFeR––that is designed to assist family law professionals examine the nature, frequency and severity of the family violence, the presence of coercive control and its impact on the survivor parent and children, as well as indicators of change by the parent who used violence. The guide summarizes this information in accordance the best interests of the child sections in the selected federal and provincial/territorial legislation and provides you will information to construct a parenting plan that keeps the survivor parent and children safer.
About Dr. Lisa Heslop | Lisa Heslop has over 40 years of experience working in the area of gender-based violence. She is a research partner at the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children where she leads and co-leads projects related to family violence and family law, including the development of the e-SAFeR. Lisa is a consultant with the children’s mental health centre, Navigating Onward, London Family Court Clinic, and a clinical panel member of the Office of the Children’s Lawyer. Lisa has co-authored articles and book chapters related to gender-based violence and most recently, was an editor of a newly released book, Understanding Family Violence in Family Court Proceedings, alongside Drs. Nicholas Bala, Peter Jaffe and Katreena Scott.
10:45 AM – 11:30 AM
Dr. Pamela Cross | And Sometimes They Kill You: Confronting the Epidemic of Intimate Partner Violence
Why have we failed to respond effectively to intimate partner violence, a social problem that affects millions of women and children? And Sometimes They Kill You: Confronting the Epidemic of Intimate Partner Violence untangles what it is, the barriers to its eradication, and what we could be doing to eliminate those barriers.
About Pamela Cross: Pamela Cross is a feminist lawyer; a well-known and respected expert on violence against women and the law. She works as a researcher, writer, educator and trainer with women’s equality and violence against women organizations across Canada.
In November 2024, Pamela’s book, And Sometimes They Kill You: Confronting the Epidemic of Intimate Partner Violence, was released by Between the Lines Books. Shortlisted for the Donner Prize for the best public policy book written by a Canadian, the book explores the systemic failures in addressing intimate partner violence while also offering hope of what we can accomplish with a whole-of-society strategy.
11:30 PM – 11:45 AM
LUNCH BREAK
11:45 AM – 12:30 PM
Archana Medhekar | Keynote Address | The Intersectionality of Culture, Race, & Intimate Partner Violence
Archana Medhekar cuts through conventional narratives about intimate partner violence and goes straight to the structural forces that shape risk, disclosure, credibility, and safety. Drawing on her work as a Certified Specialist in Family Law, mediator-arbitrator, and researcher on trauma-informed practice, she examines how culture, race, migration histories, and social location interact with the dynamics of coercive control. This keynote challenges the idea that IPV can be understood or addressed through a single framework. Archana shows how racialized and immigrant survivors face layered barriers: cultural isolation, immigration precarity, language divides, structural racism, and system bias. She connects these realities to family-court processes, credibility assessments, child-related decisions, and the persistent gap between legal protection on paper and safety in practice. Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of three things: why intersectionality is not an academic add-on but essential to accurate risk assessment, how trauma and culture shape help-seeking behaviour, and what legal and justice-sector professionals must change in order to avoid replicating harm within the system itself.
About Archana Medhekar: Archana Medhekar is a Certified Specialist in Family Law, mediator-arbitrator, and children’s lawyer with over twenty-five years of experience in complex, trauma-impacted family and child-protection matters. She leads a trauma-informed, culturally responsive practice that serves children and youth, and diverse and vulnerable communities, including racialized and immigrant families navigating intimate partner violence, coercive control, and cross-border disputes.
12:30 PM – 1:15 PM
Dr. Suzanne Zaccour | Does Domestic Violence Disappear from Alienation Cases?
This presentation addresses how “parental alienation” accusations are often used in family law to discredit survivors of intimate partner violence and undermine their safety, by shifting the focus from the abusive parent’s conduct to the protective parent’s behaviour. The presentation presents research findings and will involve practical recommendations for mediators and arbitrators to identify and avoid these harms and ensure child safety remains the priority. About Dr. Suzanne Zaccour: Dr Suzanne Zaccour is the Director of legal affairs for the National Association of Women and the Law, a not-for-profit organization that works to advance the rights of all women in Canada through feminist law reform. She recently completed her doctorate degree at Oxford University, and is a recognized researcher, writer and public speaker on the topic of violence against women. Suzanne was a law clerk at the Supreme Court of Canada in 2019-2020
About Dr. Suzanne Zaccour: Dr Suzanne Zaccour is the Director of legal affairs for the National Association of Women and the Law, a not-for-profit organization that works to advance the rights of all women in Canada through feminist law reform. She recently completed her doctorate degree at Oxford University, and is a recognized researcher, writer and public speaker on the topic of violence against women. Suzanne was a law clerk at the Supreme Court of Canada in 2019-2020
1:15 PM – 2:00 PM
Tom Curry | Ahluwalia: What is Next?
At the time of writing this description, we have not received the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Ahluwalia v. Ahluwalia. While the Ontario Court of Appeal confirmed that abuse in the domestic context should be compensated, Justice Benotto concluded that the existing torts, including those of battery and assault, could adequately addresse the harms imposed on Ms. Ahluwalia. Assuming the SCC decision has been released, Tom will review the decision and its impact on future tort arguments in this context.
About Tom Curry: Widely recognized as a leading trial and appellate counsel, Tom has a long record of success in high-profile litigation. He represents private and public sector clients in class actions, arbitrations, business disputes, administrative proceedings and judicial reviews, professional liability matters and intellectual property cases at both the trial and appellate levels. He appears before all levels of court and tribunals in Ontario, and maintains a busy and successful appellate practice. Tom regularly appears before the Divisional Court, the Court of Appeal for Ontario, and has appeared in other provincial appellate courts, the Federal Court of Canada, the Federal Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada.
Tom is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and is certified as a specialist in civil litigation by the Law Society of Upper Canada. He is a regular speaker on a wide variety of subjects relating to trial practice and substantive law.
2:15 PM – 2:30 PM
Break
2:30 PM – 3:15 PM
Dr. Katreena Scott | Promoting & Assessing Change in Fathers Who Have Perpetrated Family Violence
Under the Divorce Act, as well as Ontario's Children's Law Reform Act, one of the best interest factors that need to be considered is: "Any steps taken by the person engaging in the family violence to prevent further family violence from occurring and improve their ability to care for and meet the needs of the child". In this talk, I will review evidence on rates and predictors of change in men who have perpetrated family violence and outline the types of evidence that might be used to argue that change has or has not occurred. Using the Caring Dads program as a model, I will outline the principles and content of programs that are most effective in helping fathers address the behaviours which give rise to abuse and that often are contributing to ongoing problems and risks to children post- separation.
About Dr. Katreena Scott: Dr. Katreena Scott is a Psychologist, a Professor in Applied Psychology within the Faculty of Education at Western University, and a Tier I Canada Research Chair in Ending Child Abuse and Domestic Violence. Katreena serves as the Academic Director of the Centre for Research & Education on Violence Against Women & Children, where she leads a dedicated team of students and research associates who are working to understand and prevent violence in relationships. Dr. Scott is internationally recognized for her research on empirically and ethically sound policies and practices for intervening with men who have used violence against their partners and/or children. The Caring Dads program that she developed to intervene with fathers who have used abusive behaviours in their families runs in locations across Canada, Australia, the US and several European countries. Currently, Dr. Scott is a lead on the Awareness to Action project that is building the capacity within the family law system to better recognize and respond to the impact of family violence. Dr. Scott is the recipient of the 2025 AFCC Stanley Cohen Distinguished Research Award recognizing outstanding research achievements in the field of family and divorce.
3:15 PM – 4:15 PM
Senior Family Justice Suzanne Stephenson (SCJ), Justice Lene Madsen (ONCA), and Justice Wiriranai Kapurura (OCJ) with Moderator Judith Nicoll | The Impact of Allegations of Intimate Partner Violence on Parenting Decisions by the Courts
4:15 PM – 4:30 PM
Case Law Update | Brahm Siegel
Brahm Siegel will be summarizing all family law cases since January 2024 where an arbitral award was appealed or subject to judicial review.
About Brahm Siegel: Brahm is a senior partner at Nathens, Siegel, LLP, a family law and divorce boutique firm with offices in Toronto and Mississauga.
Thank you so much for our planning committee:
Elizabeth Hyde, Co-Vice Chair, FDRIO Board of Directors
Cheryl Goldhart, Co-Vice Chair, FDRIO Board of Directors
Clayton Spencer, Director, FDRIO Board of Directors
Judith M. Nicoll, FDRIO Member
Rachael Eynon, FDRIO Member