Hitting a partner until they cry is against the law in Canada. As is striking an animal. The same needs to be true of taking swings at children. That the perpetrators blame the children for hitting them shouldn’t pass as an excuse. That defenders of this practice use the euphemism of “spanking” instead shouldn’t fly either. This abuse is illegal in 55 countries as it ought to be in Canada. Instead it’s explicitly permissible by law in Section 43.
Since at least 1994, advocates have been trying repeal that section. There was a constitutional challenge. However, in 2004 the Supreme Court ruled in favour of upholding the section. In their ruling they set that assaulting children with objects wasn’t permissible, only using hands to strike them, and they prohibited taking swings at infants or teenagers. Bill S-21 was then introduced in 2004 to repeal the law. It died on the floor. In 2015, the Liberal government stated they would repeal the law. They did no such thing during their tenure. Senate Public Bill S-206 was introduced in 2015 to repeal the law. It was killed by delay. This needs to be a government bill to have a chance to pass in this environment.
Children who are regularly assaulted in this legally permissible way end up with worse outcomes. A meta-analysis of 160,000 children found “spanking” was indeed no different from other forms of physical abuse in detrimental outcomes. Young adults who had been struck for at least three years growing up, at least twelve times a year, and with objects, had gray matter reductions of 19% in their prefrontal cortex, the part responsible for moderating behaviour, decision making, and personality expression. Another study found that children who were hit at age 3 were more aggressive by age 5, and lower vocabulary scores by age 9. And another found that young adults who were hit by their parents were more likely to perpetrate dating violence.
This should be so obvious it doesn’t require scientific research to make incontrovertible. That is not the social climate we live in. As of 2014, a quarter of parents in Canada of children age 2-11 self-reported hitting them in the previous month. The United Nations stated quite directly:
Violence against children, including corporal punishment, is a violation of the rights of the child. It conflicts with the child’s human dignity and the right of the child to physical integrity. It also prevents children from reaching their full potential, by putting at risk their right to health, survival and development. The best interests of the child can never be used to justify such practice.
There’s no popular movement to push this. Nonetheless, Section 43 has to be repealed.