An interesting article titled Faith Based Arbitrations In Ontario: A Lost Opportunity has been posted by Canadian lawyer Faisal Kutty. It criticizes Ontario's decision last month to preclude the use of religious laws in resolving family disputes under the province's Arbitration Act. Kutty says that misunderstanding, ignorance, and careless pronouncements, as well as inaccurate media coverage, led to the Family Statute Law Amendment Act, 2005. The FSLAA goes against the recommendations in the Boyd Report, a study commissioned by the Ontario government. Kutty argues that Ontario lost an opportunity to show the world how to balance the rights of a religious community with those of potentially vulnerable individuals, and to demonstrate how Islamic law and liberal democracy could co-exist. He fears that "back alley" arbitrations will continue in Ontario, but now without any regulation or supervision.
An earlier article by Kutty discussed the recommendations made by the 2004 Boyd Report that called for retaining religious-based arbitration, but imposing new regulation on arbitration tribunals and the family law arbitration process.
