24 September 2026
September 24, 2026
Content note: This report deals with difficult content that may be upsetting to read, including the deaths of children. Please feel free to skip this content if it is not right for you.
Anishinaabe Territory/Ottawa, September 24, 2026 – A new Canadian study examining the deaths of children killed by their parents finds recurring institutional failures in the family-law, child-protection and related systems responsible for assessing and responding to danger.
Institutional Failures and Child Murder in Canada, released today by the National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL) and researchers at the Université de Sherbrooke Faculty of Law, reconstructs the institutional histories of eight children killed in five Canadian families.
Drawing on coroners’ reports, court decisions, civil filings and news reporting, the study finds not only that warning signs were present before the children’s deaths, but that in each case, women who raised concerns were disbelieved, ignored, penalized, or left without the protection they sought.
A “pro-contact” culture that prioritizes father-child contact over child safety
The report identifies recurring patterns across the cases, including poor coordination between institutions, fragmented risk assessment, reluctance to restrict parental contact, and the tendency to treat women’s safety concerns as hostility, exaggeration, or evidence of “parental alienation.”
The researchers raise particular concern about what they describe as a “pro-contact” culture in family law and child protection systems. In such a culture, maintaining a child’s contact with both parents can be prioritized even when there are allegations of domestic violence, coercive control, intimidation, or serious concerns about a parent’s behaviour.
“In the cases we studied, danger was not unknowable. Too often, the concerns voiced by women were minimized or turned against them. We need family-law and child-protection systems that begin with safety—not an assumption that contact must be preserved at all costs. These deaths were preventable.”
— Professor Évelyne Jean-Bouchard, Lead Researcher, Faculty of Law, University of Sherbrooke
Among the report’s key findings:
- Safety warnings did not lead to adequate protection;
- Women who raised the alarm were not believed;
- Risk assessment was fragmented, with institutions failing to coordinate;
- Preserving or restoring father-child contacts took precedence over safety;
- “Parental alienation” concepts were used to ignore risk and frame protective women as the problem.
“Keira’s death was predictable and preventable. Her case was an extreme one, with serious concerns about family violence, coercive control and her safety, yet the system still failed to protect her. If children can be failed where the danger was that apparent, we have to ask how many others are being failed where the risk is less obvious and, without a death or other catastrophic outcome, the failure does not become public.”
— Philip Viater, family lawyer and stepfather of Keira Kagan, whose death is examined in the report
Parliament to make critical decisions on children’s safety in coming weeks
As Bill C-223, the Keeping Children Safe Act, comes before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, the authors urge the federal government to act with the urgency these cases demand and commit to reforms that could save vulnerable children’s lives.
This private member’s bill, introduced by MP Lisa Hepfner, would amend the Divorce Act to strengthen protections for children and families experiencing family violence and post-separation abuse. Its proposed changes include family-violence screening by legal advisers, greater attention to children’s views and preferences, and measures intended to prevent parenting decisions from being driven by harmful myths and stereotypes, including claims that children have been “alienated” or manipulated by a parent.
“The Carney government has committed to keeping Canadians safe as one of its key priorities – this must include children. The federal government and Justice Minister Fraser need to commit to supporting the Bill. Parliament cannot bring these children back, but it can act to help prevent the next death.”
— Suzanne Zaccour, Director of Legal Affairs, National Association of Women and the Law
about NAWL
The National Association of Women and the Law is a not-for-profit feminist organization that promotes the equality rights of women through legal education, research and law reform advocacy.
