Open Letter to
Canadian Legislators

We, the undersigned citizens, legal professionals, researchers, and advocates, write to you on behalf of the millions of Canadians who interact with the family justice system every year — and who find it costly, slow, opaque, and frequently unjust.

The scale of the problem is not in dispute. It is documented in Statistics Canada's own data. The Canadian Legal Problems Survey 2021 found that 35% of adult Canadians faced a serious legal problem in a three-year period — yet 57% received no professional legal help. In family courts specifically, an estimated 68% of litigants appear without a lawyer. Contested cases take 3 to 5 years to resolve and cost each party over $30,000. These families are not exceptions — they are the rule.

We are particularly alarmed by the intersection of family violence and court access. Statistics Canada's Family Violence in Canada: A Statistical Profile 2021 (Catalogue No. 85-224-X) records 118,836 police-reported victims of intimate partner violence in 2021, with women accounting for 79% of victims. Most critically, 44% of intimate partner homicides in Canada occur after separation — exactly the period during which families are navigating the court system. Only 4 of Canada's 13 provinces and territories operate dedicated family violence courts. An inaccessible, opaque, and under-resourced family court system is not merely unjust — it is a public safety emergency.

We acknowledge that Canada has taken important steps. The federal Divorce Act modernization (2021) introduced trauma-informed provisions for family violence cases. British Columbia's Civil Resolution Tribunal has demonstrated that technology-assisted dispute resolution is not theoretical — it is operational. The Treasury Board Directive on Automated Decision-Making (2023) establishes a credible framework for algorithmic accountability in public services. Canada's proposed Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (Bill C-27) signals legislative intent to govern AI responsibly.

But legislative intent without funded implementation is insufficient. The families navigating provincial family courts today — self-represented, financially depleted, traumatized, and without meaningful guidance — cannot wait for the pace of ordinary legislative progress. The technology to accelerate reform exists now. The evidence base is complete. What is required is the political will to act with urgency and with principle.

We therefore call on you — as individuals holding the constitutional authority and democratic mandate to act — to commit immediately to the four demands set out below.