Founder of Canada Court Watch
Vernon Beck has been involved as a family justice advocate and investigative journalist for over 19 years in the movement to promote transparency and accountability within Canada’s family and child protection justice systems. He is a past member of the Canadian Association of Journalists and is currently a member in good standing with the journalist union. As a well established advocate Mr. Beck receives calls from children and parents on a daily basis from all over Canada in regards to injustices being perpetrated against them.
Mr. Beck is a trained mediator and family conflict specialist and has been approved by the courts as a family coordinator. During his earlier career he engaged in family mediation and volunteered as a supervised access supervisor and parent coordinator where he became familiar with many stories of injustices against children and families in the family court system. Mr. Beck was the chairperson of an advisory group consisting of over thirty lawyers and health care professions which created one of Ontario’s first parenting coordinating programs called the Family Assistance and Parent Support Program which was developed to reduce harm to children as a result of the conflict between separating parents. Mr. Beck was one of the first investigators to develop a protocol and to make extensive use of video recording when conducting interviews with children.
In the public realm over the years, Mr. Beck has made presentations about the family justice system to high school, college, university students and to native and other community groups in various parts of Ontario which he continues to give to this day. Through Canada Court Watch over the years he has hosted a number of public events such as community legal clinics and presentations with well known political figures of the time. He has given testimony as a witness before legislative bodies at both the Federal and Provincial level on the topic family law and the justice system. He has been granted special status by a Superior Court judge to represent a minor in a child protection matter in lieu of a lawyer based on his experience with family law.
Today, as part of his continuing research into the many problems facing children and families involved the family justice system in Canada, Mr. Beck is engaged forensic investigation and analysis of complex child protection and family court matters as part of his work to develop new and innovative solutions and strategies to help solve the crisis facing Canada’s family justice system today. He is currently working on a number of justice related initiatives including writing a guide for parents to help them better understand the provisions of Ontario’s Child and Family Services Act.