Quebec’s justice minister introduced a new bill on Thursday that would deny rapists the right to demand a paternity test for children born of a crime.
In explaining Bill 12, Simon Jolyn Barrett said rape victims who gave birth to children as a result of their crimes could object to requests for paternity tests.
“Now the mother of the child born from [rape] A child’s paternity could be challenged,” Jorin Barrett said.
The justice minister said his motivation for introducing the bill was partly due to the case of ‘Osean’, a woman who came forward in 2022 after a man convicted of rape tried to claim the paternity of his child. rice field.
“Last summer, everyone in Quebec was shocked to hear that a man had raped a girl and asked him to identify himself as the father. There was no.”
He said courts now need to recognize cases where a rapist is proven to be the child’s father.
“To declare you a father,” Jorin Barrett said. “We don’t want that to happen again, so we changed the law…we clearly gave mothers a choice…she said, ‘No, I don’t want to be that guy.’ No. I am involved in my child’s life. ”
The law also extends to victims of domestic sexual assault. Jolin-Barrette explained that if a woman has been raped in the home, she can apply to sever the relationship between the father and the child, even if the man is legally considered to be the child’s father.
“As long as it’s in the child’s interest,” he said.
The bill also requires that sexual offenders pay mothers for the needs of their children from birth to adulthood.
Children can also legally inherit wealth from the aggressor’s property after they die.
Change in Surrogacy Law
The bill also closes a loophole in the state’s surrogacy law, the justice minister said.
“Now there was a hole in the law if a parent wanted a surrogate. [and] “I didn’t take my child in the end. The child had no rights,” Jorin Barrett said. I want to be able to do it,” he said.
The bill also gives children born through surrogacy the right to know their origins.
“It’s an important right to know where you come from,” said Simon Jollet.
