12-year-old Quebec kid sues dad for not allowing school trip, and wins
OTTAWA - If you deny your children access to TV or withhold their allowance, can they take you to court? And win?
That implausible scenario emerged after a judge in Gatineau, Que., sided with a 12-year-old girl who challenged her father after he refused to let her go on a school trip for disobeying his orders to stay off the Internet.
The father, who is divorced but has legal custody of his daughter, cut off her Internet access after she chatted on websites he had tried to block. She then used a friend's Internet connection to post inappropriate pictures of herself.
After discovering that, the father told his daughter she couldn't go on the three-day school trip. The daughter "slammed the door" and went to live with her mother, who was willing to let her take the trip.
However, the school wouldn't allow the girl to go unless both parents consented or she obtained a court order. That prompted the girl, with her mother's support, to take legal action against her father.
