To: "PCACCANADA"
<pcaccanada@yahoogroups.com> [A divorce-reform e-mail list.]
From: "Todd Eckert" <toadster@attcanada.net>
Mailing-List: list pcaccanada@yahoogroups.com; contact
pcaccanada-owner@yahoogroups.com
Date: Fri,
30 Mar 2001 08:18:09 -0800
Subject: [pcaccanada] NP article
Thanks to Louise
Malenfant for the following.
Todd Eckert
PCAC
Hello Everyone,
Part two is in tomorrow, we think... ["We" clearly being the
reporter and Ms. Malenfant.]
NATIONAL POST
March 30, 2001
Dispute erupts at rights group for fathers
Board resigns: Sex offender quits as
vice-president of organization
Donna Laframboise
National
Post
John Lehmann, National Post
Louise Malenfant
says dispute has hurt reputation of the group.
The board of directors of a
The Equitable Child Maintenance and Access Society
(ECMAS) is
At its annual general meeting on March 12, ECMAS
Edmonton alarmed the
This past weekend, after the National Post began
investigating, ECMAS Edmonton voted to accept Mr. Adams' resignation as
vice-president, but turned down a proposal to eject him from the organization
altogether.
However, the
Mr. Adams' disbarment was unanimously upheld by three
Alberta Court of Appeal judges in September, 2000. Noting that his arrest
occurred only two years after a previous prostitution-related offence (to which
he pleaded guilty in December, 1994, and obtained an absolute discharge), the
judges' ruling says: "
Mr. Adams said in an e-mail that his legal background
allows him to make a valuable contribution to ECMAS Edmonton.
"The hours I have volunteered have increased
dramatically ... at all hours of the day and night to very desperate and broke
people that need our help and support. Am I forever a piriah (sic) -- I have
accepted responsibility for my actions, paid my debt to society and performed
thousands of hour of unpaid community service and lived a relatively trouble
free life" since 1996.
In the words of one ECMAS Edmonton member, who asked not
to be identified, the group provides a valuable service that is being threatened
by Mr. Adams' presence. Many of the people who attend the weekly support
meetings, "are beaten up. They are beaten up so bad I have to fight back
tears because there's some guys I've seen walk in there that are ready to put a
bullet in their head." After Mr. Adams was voted in as vice-president,
this man says his own reaction was: "Are you guys nuts?"
Louise Malenfant, a community activist in
"It's heartbreaking that this group, which has such
a noble and respected history, has come to this," she says. "The
falsely accused want nothing to do with people who have 'liberal' views about
sex with young people." Ms. Malenfant says she made repeated attempts in
recent months "to convey my concerns about Mr. Adams to the leadership,
and the response of the group was to allow him to stand as vice-president, and
to vote him into that office."