Senator Michela Barnett-Ellis.
Senator: ‘No-fault’ clause for end of marriages can help take out contention
By JADE RUSSELL
Tribune Staff Reporter
jrussell@tribunemedia.net
FREE National Movement Senator Michela Barnett-Ellis said it is time to amend the Matrimonial Causes Act to permit “no-fault” divorces.
“Divorces are a breakdown of a marriage,” she said. “Both parties contribute to the breakdown in some sort of way, so the move to no-fault divorces takes that angst and contention out.
Senator Barnett-Ellis, who called for reform in the Senate on Monday, added that couples experiencing a divorce deal with emotional turmoil, but a no-fault ground would make the process less dreadful.
Currently, people in The Bahamas can only get a divorce if their spouse has committed adultery, has been cruel, if the two have lived separately for five years, if one has deserted the other for two years or if a spouse has been found guilty of a homosexual act, sodomy or bestiality.
The United States, Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Malta, Mexico, Russia, Spain and Sweden are among the countries that permit no-fault divorces. The Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 amended the United Kingdom’s Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 and the Civil Partnership Act 2004 to remove fault-based concepts from UK divorce proceedings.
After the amendments went into force in 2022, the UK’s government said on its website: “It ends completely the need for separating couples to apportion blame for the breakdown of their marriage, helping them to instead focus on key practical decisions involving children or their finances and look to the future.”
Free National Movement leader Michal Pintard said he supports amending the law to permit no-fault divorces, adding there have been a limited number of options for people seeking a divorce.
He said his party had not yet discussed the matter, but he is confident it would quickly do so and give its position.
He had previously supported no-fault divorces in the House of Assembly in November, 2022.
However, earlier that year, he described the current divorce grounds as “solid” and said there are “people who are leaving people for very frivolous reasons”.
Comments
JackArawak 1 month, 2 weeks ago
the church will freak out
AnObserver 1 month, 2 weeks ago
When has the church ever been a good reference for what society should do? They have historically persecuted, murdered, and imprisoned anyone who dared to disagree with them and their ignorant, backwards thoughts.
If we had trusted the church, and not free thinkers, we'd still think the world was flat, and not understand gravity. The modern world we live in owes it's very existence to heretics and apostates.
LastManStanding 1 month, 2 weeks ago
There really should be an IQ requirement to filter morons like you from posting public opinions. Anti clericals like Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot murdered more than any one ever did in the name of any religion and quite frankly most of the slander against Christianity like accusations of witch burning and the Inquisition are completely fabricated with no historical basis, or like most other "genocides" just completely exaggerated with no historical evidence to back up the claimed death totals.
Go look at South Korea, a country that will be mostly died off in another 50 years, that is the end result of your "modern world" and foolish ideology. The North will be able to just walk over the border and occupy the nation at some point because they at least have a replacement level birthrate. Liberalism is a death cult worse than literal communism, one ideology at least has the sensibility to look at a graph and understand numbers. At least the Bahamas would exist under religious rule, Bahamians will only exist as an obscure footnote in history books (if the people of that time will even be able to read, which I doubt) on a long enough time scale listening to foolish ideologues such as yourself.
Sickened 1 month, 2 weeks ago
Thank the Lord for people like you Senator.
ExposedU2C 1 month, 2 weeks ago
This nepotism baby seems oblivious to the fact that dire financial stress is a leading cause of irretrievably broken marriages. Does she even appreciate that Bahamian men are out numbered by Bahamian women and have fewer well paying job opportunities than ever before? I suspect not.
Clearly this silver spooned baby attaches no significance to the fact that most office environments, in both the public and private sectors alike, are dominated by women today. Nor does she appreciate that trends in technology have also eliminated many of the decent paying jobs of the past that required testosterone driven physical labour.
The traditional marriage vows of "for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health" recognize married life has its ups and downs and represent a promise to stay faithful and committed absent repeated instances of physical abuse and other unacceptable forms of cruelty.
This rather immature senator fails to appreciate that making a divorce as easy as a husband or wife signing a short legal document belittles the sanctity of the institution of marriage with undesirable consequences for the overall well-being of a society. She would better devote her time as a senator to things that would help strengthen rather than weaken the institution of marriage, with poverty for way too many families today being at the top of the list.
pileit 1 month, 2 weeks ago
you hurl insults at the lady without cause. methinks you think too much of your opinion. The amount of miserable marriages in this country remaining because neither party can afford the separation is insane. youre putting your personal experience and opinion in the laps of many who are SUFFERING. you have no right to trivialize. worry bout your own marriage.
bahamianson 1 month, 2 weeks ago
In the unoted states , you can gey a handgun lic3nse. Over here, you cannot get a handgun lic3nse. So, if you want us to be progressive, let us get handgun licenses. People luke to cherry pick and say in this place or that place to try to belittle our laws ,but , you cant eat your cake and have it.
hrysippus 1 month, 2 weeks ago
Congratulations to this senator for raising this topic. The costs and traumas involved in getting divorced in this country are regressive, unnecessary, and just so out of touch with modern life.
ExposedU2C 1 month, 2 weeks ago
The 'modern life' greedy lawyers are a big part of the divorce costs and traumas you speak of. Our society has way too many greedy lawyers and nowhere near enough qualified marital counsellors. And as many of us well know, the clergy in our country are often not the best counsellors when it comes to marital issues.
birdiestrachan 1 month, 2 weeks ago
She use to be a Roman Catholic now she is a member of the looney team,
bahamianson 1 month, 2 weeks ago
Fisherman never call his fish stink. This lawyer just wants more business. If she gets ahead of the game , people will seek her assistance.
LastManStanding 1 month, 2 weeks ago
No fault divorce already de facto exists here; my mother divorced my father under grounds of cruelty and basically told the judge that he didn't buy her enough shit and take her on vacations and they accepted that because neither party wanted to continue the marriage. The judges don't give a shit about your reasoning, they just want to know if there is any possibility that the marriage will work.
LastManStanding 1 month, 2 weeks ago
Divorce proceedings are only as contentious as either party makes them; it is really easy to sit down as adults and come to an agreement if both parties really want to. That being said, divorces being common is a symptom of a failed society on it's way to collapse.
What our country really needs is for the average Bahamian to evolve past 13 mentally and maybe society will improve. The boomers and silent generation failed to teach their children any values, and we are reaping the fruits of that today. Constant murders, low IQ morons who just steal everything they can and give their friends and lovers government contracts, power that cuts off because it's drizzling outside all come from the fact that older generations didn't teach their children to give a shit about anything in life, besides themselves maybe. We need to be focusing on restoring Bahamian families and helping couples with children stay together and learn how to deal with their problems in a healthy way instead of encouraging further societal collapse. What it's really time for is to get rid of the low IQ morons that have got us in this mess.
birdiestrachan 1 month, 2 weeks ago
They quote all of those countries who have done ungodly acts follow their earthly Gods but they forgot the one who turned water into wine the first. Miracle at a wedding feast , they may not know him those of us who know him should hold him high,
birdiestrachan 1 month, 2 weeks ago
What about the senator is she planning a divorce inquiring minds would like to know
BONEFISH 1 month, 1 week ago
The senator is right. All laws concerning marriage and divorce in this country needs to be modernized/
What does this country gain by having two unhappy adults trapped in a loveless marriage
A relative who went aboard to university said this. Her classmates use to tease her and laugh how backward the Bahamas was in it's social, political and economic development.
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