The
Equitable Child Maintenance and Access Society is
An
Founded in Edmonton in 1992, the Equitable Child Maintenance and Access Society (ECMAS) is Alberta’s largest non-custodial parents’ lobby group, with sister organizations in Calgary, Lethbridge and Fort McMurray. It has been described as a lifeline by embattled divorced parents—mostly fathers—who have been denied access to their children, ordered to pay unreasonable amounts of child support, or been falsely accused of sexual abuse.
In late March, the board of directors of the Calgary chapter of ECMAS resigned en masse and disassociated itself from the ECMAS trade name. The move followed a series of events in which the Edmonton chapter of ECMAS elected [Tim] Adams vice-president on March 12, voted to accept his resignation on March 25, but then voted down a motion to eject him from the group.
Louise Malenfant, a community activist in Edmonton, says published views on
childhood sex by Ferrell Christensen, a second man involved in ECMAS Edmonton,
further undermine the group’s ability to assist those wrongly accused of sex
offences. “You cannot legitimately speak on behalf of the falsely accused while
holding the belief that sex in childhood is a good thing,”
[The
book says it's not inherently harmful, not
that it's a good thing. This it is yet another example (though not relevant to
the current point) of the reporter
violating her own claim about the distinction between facts and values.][Back] she
says, adding that these two men are among ECMAS Edmonton’s most prominent
activists.
In 1996, Mr. Adams, a practising lawyer, was arrested after he approached one of his clients, a 16-year-old prostitute, for sex. He pleaded guilty, received a 15- month conditional sentence, and was disbarred in 1998. Unanimously upholding his disbarment in September, 2000, three Alberta Court of Appeal judges noted that Mr. Adams, who was in a position of trust in relationship to the young woman, contacted her on the street, as well as at home.
After being approached by police, the young woman agreed to co-operate. “Adams, twice the age of his young client, and fully aware of her strong desire to have her boyfriend released from jail, persuaded her to have sex with him,” wrote the judges. “Adams does not deny that the meeting was for the sole purpose of having sex. Shortly after arriving in the hotel room, the complainant stepped out, and the police entered as Adams was pulling up and zipping up his pants and tucking in his shirt. ... She did not initiate the proposition of a sexual encounter. It was Adams’ desire, despite his acknowledgment that what he proposed was inappropriate.”
Ferrell Christensen, for his part, is a professor emeritus
of Philosophy at the University of Alberta and the author of a 1990 book,
Pornography: the Other Side. While children’s sexuality has decided moral dimensions for
most Canadians, in a section titled Sex and Young People Prof. Christensen discusses
these issues outside of a moral context. [The
phrase 'these issues' is clearly intended, given what issues the article then
immediately discusses and all of the stress it puts on pedophiles, to include
adult-child sexual contact.]
[Back]
According to Prof. Christensen, who neither condones nor advocates
inter-generational sex, “the idea that sex is bad for young people is at
best another self-fulfilling prophesy.” In “cultures where they are not
prevented from doing so,” he says, children “begin sexuality, sometimes even
coitus itself, at a very early age.” Pedophiles, he believes, are
able to lure children because, in our culture, “young people are prevented from having the sexual knowledge,
and the sexual contact with peers, that they naturally desire.” [Back]
Even more controversially, when
discussing the harm he believes society’s attitudes toward childhood sex cause, he equates
loving parents, who teach their children sexual restraint, with pedophiles: [Back]
“Given that children are particularly vulnerable to coercion,” he writes, “protecting them from being pressured or forced into something which, in present social conditions, can be highly distressing or even psychologically damaging is a serious concern [though it is potentially no more so than the practice of coercing them not to act sexually].” Elsewhere, he says: “Stories of emotional distress from early sexual experience are often told in this society, but it is clear that the real sources of such trauma, other than those involving unwanted pregnancy, coercion, or disease, lie in the accompanying social attitudes. Ironically, in fact, it is the very fear and guilt that children are taught to keep them from being sexual that cause the problems.” [The quote on "early sexual experience" is made at a point in the book where it is discussing young people's sexual experiences with each other, not at any of the places where pedophiles are explicitly or implicitly mentioned.]
Ms. Malenfant and Prof. Christensen had a personal
falling out last fall after she accepted his invitation to move from
Winnipeg to Edmonton in order to work with shell-shocked divorcing parents. Prior to their estrangement, [Back]
Prof. Christensen briefly paid Ms. Malenfant a modest salary out of his retirement savings. Now that she has read his book, Ms. Malenfant—who has helped dozens of men who’ve been falsely accused of abuse during divorce proceedings clear their names—says the last thing people facing false allegations need is to be associated with someone who publishes analyses of childhood sex most parents would consider highly controversial.
In interviews with the National Post, four people involved with ECMAS Edmonton in the past three years confirm that Prof. Christensen is a dominant personality in the group and a strong supporter of Mr. Adams. Due to worries that public identification might negatively affect their ongoing divorce cases, the Post agreed to grant them anonymity. [The strong support for Adams expressed to her by the president, the former vice president and a board member--and almost all active members of ECMAS, had she not refused to listen--is nowhere hinted at here.][Back]
One woman says Prof. Christensen has “worked very
hard” for the organization but that he has also suggested “at least, maybe eight times” that her
nephew fire his lawyer and hire the disbarred Mr. Adams instead. [What she really said will be seen shortly.] [Next]
“We went to court a few times and you
know the high cost, we just couldn't afford the cost anymore," she says. "And
he said: 'Dump your lawyer. You don't need a lawyer, [Tim] Adams will help
you. Just go to [Tim] Adams'. [Back]
... He’d phone quite often about different meetings and we’d get talking
about different things. And he says, ‘Well, you know, I think you’d be really
impressed with [Tim] Adams.’ ”
ECMAS Edmonton’s support group meetings, which attract both regulars
and newcomers, begin with the disclaimer that the group is not offering legal
advice. But another man says a recent proposal to test run a second group per
week was opposed by Prof. Christensen. “I remember him saying, ‘I’m extremely
opposed to this. This will be horrible. It’s not a good idea. We can’t have
some other support group meeting without the ability to offer legal advice,’
stating that [Tim] Adams, who comes to the support groups, is some kind of legal
advice.” [The
quoted person's failure to distinguish legal advice from general legal
information is noted elsewhere here. The reporter's failure to distinguish them
might be from ignorance--but given
her high level of general knowledge on these subjects and given what Mr. Adams
explicitly told her, it looks more like her many other
word-manipulations.] [Back]
Prof. Christensen has often remarked, “ ‘What you should
do is call [Tim] ...
[Tim] is a lawyer, you should talk to [Tim].’ I’ve heard him say that, several
times,” reports the man. “But he’s never said, ‘[Tim] is a disbarred lawyer but
he can still help you.' [Back] ...
Ferrell's
very adamant and very sure that the only
person that can really help in that group is [Tim] Adams. I don’t know what the hell
that’s all about.” [Back] According to another man, Mr. Adams
frequently responds to people’s questions about their legal options. “He would
say, ‘Well, legally, you’re allowed to do this, this and this’ ... for his
advice, after the meetings, he wanted $100 an hour for counselling
services.”
This man says he has seen Mr. Adams
hand out business cards at support group meetings "probably
at least 20" times.
[These words are very misleading, for they falsely suggest that Mr.
Adams was actively seeking clients at the meetings. For one thing, the card was
often so people could phone for more free help. More importantly, Mr. Adams
gave out his card in meetings only when someone else asked him to.] [Next]
"He kind of feels them out as to who's got money
and who doesn't. We tell our story and what’s happening in our situation, and both him
and Ferrell kind of ask about the financial aspect.” [Back]
Prof. Christensen has urged him to hire Mr. Adams, he
says. “Just the
one time. [Back]
It was at a meeting, but I don’t
remember if it was during a meeting or afterwards. We usually go downstairs to [a restaurant] and tend to BS
a little. And that's what [Tim] calls his office. It’s kind of an inside joke.” [Perhaps the reporter
included the ambiguous 'inside joke' part to provide another "out".
In any case, she had no reason to publish this 'office' quote except to insinuate he did paid work in
his "office".] [Back]
Another woman describes Prof. Christensen’s “very persistent” attempts to persuade her son to become a client of Mr. Adams. He “constantly kept calling. ‘Why don’t you quit your lawyer, go to [Tim] Adams, go to [Tim] Adams.... So, then one day I thought well, I may as well call him and get this thing over. So I phoned him and ... he said well, yes, we could come and see him, but he charges $90 an hour. But then he also mentioned ‘I can’t represent you in court.’ ... So we never did go to [Tim] Adams. But the issue was certainly pushed by Ferrell to us.” [Back]
Just before the Post contacted Prof. Christensen, he sent an e-mail which began: “You have no idea of the harm you are about to do.” When the Post replied with a list of 13 questions asking, among other things, whether he has ever urged anyone to hire Mr. Adams, and what he means by certain passages in his book, he declined to answer. [Back]
On March 25, ECMAS Edmonton considered a motion to suspend
Prof. Christensen from the group for three months in order to “investigate
whether his views conflict with the guiding principles and policies of ECMAS.” According
to the group’s president, Bob Bouvier, there “were two irregularities in the voting for this
issue and the board will need to reconvene to vote on this motion again.” [Publishing this
3-weeks-old information as if it were the current situation was malicious in itself. Due to the reporter's cruel
bias--and refusal to discuss anything
in his e-mails to her, recall--Mr.
Bouvier didn't notify her of the final vote. But she knew ECMAS rejected the
motion to suspend me: that result from the tally on March 27 was why the
Calgary board quit on March 28. And that decision on me was reported in both
Herald articles. She also certainly knew it from Ms. Malenfant and the Calgary
president --note the March 27 phone calls from them seen in her telephone
records (TelephoneLog.htm), also the one that day from Source A, described
earlier here as the board member dealing secretly with the reporter. Further,
she surely would have asked the latter about, and been told about, the nature
of the "irregularities" and his role in them.] [Next]
[Tim] Adams told the Post that although he joined ECMAS
Edmonton during his marital breakdown, he himself is not a non-custodial
parent. [Back] He
admits he makes contact with a quarter of his paralegal clients through ECMAS,
but denies he is motivated by financial gain.
[Whether he was motivated solely by financial gain was the real issue; like anyone else, he
has to make a living--or else he couldn't put in large amounts of volunteer
time.]
"Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, we run the support group meetings and ... I spend probably six hours on every Tuesday. We have a formal meeting and then we have a less formal gathering afterwards. That’s all volunteer time,” he says. [Back]
When asked whether he hands out business cards at support group meetings, Mr. Adams says, “Occasionally. The overwhelming majority of the time that my name and number is given out is just so that I can refer them to a lawyer because they’re not happy with the one they’ve got or they don’t have one at all.”
Mr. Adams says he tells his clients he is disbarred and gets them to sign a waiver acknowledging he is not permitted to dispense legal advice. “I’m a registered business, Affordable Paralegal Services. I have a business licence.” [Back]
But Mr. Adams’ business card makes no mention of his company and still includes the LL.B designation that indicates he earned a law degree.
“It’s just got my name, address and phone number,” he says. “Yeah, my credentials are there. But once those [business cards run] out I’m just going to put my name and I don’t know if I’ll put the company on it. Because I ran into a situation where that was misunderstood so that’s obviously going to be changed when I order the new cards, which should be any time.”