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LEGAL REPORT: FAMILY LAW Parental alienation syndrome raises the ante in custody battles but often the kids are left out of the process. BY IAN HARVEY The missing T here's something missing in the courtroom battles over parental alienation syndrome, says lawyer Jeffrey Wilson: the kids. Family law lawyer Wilson, of Wilson Christen LLP in Toronto, believes the system itself has lost track of the real focus: the children themselves. While, there is provision for judges to inter- view children and for them to have a lawyer appointed, they are markedly absent from courtrooms and usually unheard. "There's an assumption — largely untested but deeply felt — that children are harmed by any connection to a court proceeding," he says, adding 42 A UGUST 2009 www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com even if a child has a court-appointed lawyer, he or she is not bound to act according to the child's wishes only in accord with what the lawyer deems to be in the child's "best interest." PAS has too easily become a catch-all strategy and brought into play "as an ailment that can be cured scientifically with the right recovery medicine. But, at what cost, and are the courts engaged more in that of a hullabaloo than a fair inquiry exercise?" asks Wilson. Fuelling his frustration were his expe- riences this year acting for an 18-year-old who approached him after his 12- and 14-year-old brothers were committed link to a mental ward and sent to foster care while their own court-appointed lawyer did nothing because they defied a court order to live with their father. "Their wishes to refuse therapy, refuse foster care, and instead live with their father, considered 'toxic' by their counsel, were overridden by their counsel's views of their best interests," he says, noting it happens frequently. It all raises more questions than answers, says Wilson. Where does it leave the children and their own wishes? If they choose one parent over the other will they be cited for contempt? What ethical rules do lawyers face if children PIERRE PAUL PARISEAU