(Quebec) The Minister of Justice, Simon Jolin-Barrette, tabled Bill 12 on Thursday, which provides that a child born of rape may in the future oppose his filiation with the aggressor and which makes “this aggressor responsible for helping to satisfy” his needs.
On the other hand, Quebec proposes in its bill to regulate surrogacy, that is to say the use of surrogate mothers. These two issues, which are totally distinct, are part of this new part of the immense project that is the reform of family law. Mr. Jolin-Barrette had agreed last June to split Bill 2, a voluminous legislative piece of 360 articles, in order to adopt the articles concerning gender identity before the end of the legislature. Bill 12, tabled Thursday, is the continuation of this vast reform.
In the preamble to the law, which the Minister of Justice will present at a press briefing at the end of the morning on Thursday, the government explains “the bill allows a child, when he is the result of an assault sexual relationship, to dispute his filiation with the aggressor or to oppose such filiation being established. It also makes the aggressor responsible for helping to meet the needs of the child, by paying compensation to the victim of the sexual assault”.
Last week, Mr. Jolin-Barrette announced to Océane (fictitious name) that he had been particularly touched by his story, told by columnist Isabelle Hachey from The Press. In 2019, when she was only 17, the young woman was raped by her roommate and she became pregnant. The attacker, who is now in prison and whose name has been placed on the sex offenders register for life, is fighting to be recognized as the father of Océane’s boy and wants to be involved in his life, unlike the mother’s wishes.
“I wanted to tell you personally: thanks to you, thanks to the fact that you denounced, we will change the laws, we will change the ways of doing things. It can no longer happen, ”announced Simon Jolin-Barrette to Océane, as reported The Press last Saturday.
Protect surrogate mothers
In addition, Bill 12 tabled by Simon Jolin-Barrette tackles the issue of the use of surrogate mothers. Currently, contracts signed between surrogate mothers and intended parents are invalid in Quebec, where the Civil Code considers them “absolutely null”.
The government proposes to recognize “pregnancy for others and [de l’encadrer] in order to protect the interests of the child and to protect the surrogate mothers in the context of such a pregnancy”.
The bill provides, among other things, “the obligation to conclude a pregnancy agreement for another person before the start of the pregnancy as well as the obligation to obtain, after the birth of the child, the consent of the person who gave rise to the bond of filiation with the child being established exclusively with regard to the intended parents”.
“The bill allows the legal establishment of the filiation of a child resulting from such a parental project when all the parties to the agreement are domiciled in Québec on the condition, in particular, that the agreement be entered into by notarial deed in minute after the holding of an information session on the psychosocial implications and on the ethical questions that the parental project involves”, specifies one in the preamble of the bill 12.