ABOUT US

BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND COUNCIL EXECUTIVE

In recent years, activists have attempted to form a national group that would support and involve those in Canada who believe that children have a right to meaningful contact and interaction with both parents when those parents do not live together. With the founding of the Canadian Equal Parenting Council (CEPC), these efforts are now bearing fruit.

The aim of this organization, and the movement it represents, is to secure the child’s rights to be equally parented when the relationship between the father and the mother breaks down. Parents may separate, divorce, or never have lived together - in any case, the children should be able to benefit from all that each parent, and each grandparent, has to offer. Our emphasis is on the right of the child to continue to enjoy contact, nurturing and support in its widest sense, from all parents and grandparents, regardless of gender.

Up to now (2005), the movement has lacked a central, reasonable and credible voice that can explain to Canadians and the media what equal parenting groups seek to achieve and why their cause is just.

HISTORY OF THE COUNCIL

In the winter of 2001, David Shackleton, publisher and editor of Everyman Magazine, approaches individuals demonstrating sustained leadership within the movement. A series of conference calls results. The first is held on Sunday, March 3, 2002. The cost of these calls is generously underwritten by Trevor Byrne, the owner of the Men’s Divorce Centre (Toronto). After much discussion, a Statement of Goals is adopted, along with a job description for a full-time executive director.

Toronto family lawyer Gene Colman takes the lead in moving the organization forward and maintaining the momentum.

CEPC is incorporated on January 12, 2004, as a federal not-for-profit corporation. Auditors are Newman, Sversky LLP (Ira Eisen, C.A.) of Toronto.

EXECUTIVE AND BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Co-President	Maureen Geddes
Co-President	Bob McGuire
Vice-President	David Shackleton
Vice-President	Dan Carroll
Vice-President - Policy and Planning	George Piskor
Secretary-Treasurer	Gene C. Colman

Director	Gilbert Claes
Director	Brian Jenkins
Director	Warren Redman
Director	Rob Robinson
Director	Kris Titus

Ex officio advisor to the Board	Walter Fox
Maureen Geddes	Maureen Geddes is founder and president of CANGRAM International Inc. (www.cangram.com), a diversity management firm. Maureen has worked with more than 50 organizations across Canada, and internationally, to inspire action toward mutual respect at work. Her work is focused on keynotes, strategy, and workshops related to gender and cultural diversity. She is a co-author of “Expert Women Who Speak, Speak Out” Volumes I and V, and publisher of “IMAGINE Chatham-Kent 2023!”. Her column "thesexes@work.calm" is published quarterly in "Everyman - A Men's Journal". Active in many community initiatives, she currently leads the ‘Global Partners for Peace and Prosperity’ project for rural-urban Canada, and the Intercultural Coalition of Chatham-Kent. Maureen co-parents her two sons, ages 15 and 4.
Bob McGuire	Bob is a generous, creative and open-minded man who leads development at the Windsor Family Forum (www.windsorfamilyforum.com). As co-founder, along with Daniel Cahill, and a lead coach he supports hundreds of clients on a one-to-one basis each year. He also heads the team that trains coaches and facilitators. His time is divided between the creative role of the CEO who finds or makes new projects, leading change in the group and other core program activities and coaching. Since the Forum is a dynamic, evolving place, he works closely with the manager and the program staff on a day-to-day basis to handle all the business a service like the Windsor Family Forum delivers. Bob serves on the boards of The Child Abuse Prevention Council and The Charities of Bingo Country Association of Windsor. Bob was a national award-winning salesman for several years, and a restaurateur. He has been married to Jo-Anne since 1980, is the father of a blended family of five children and grandfather of four young grandsons. Bob is an advocate of shared parenting and does a great deal of work around conflict resolution and helping people turn their unpleasant past into a resource and gift to share today. Bob is our resident practitioner of an interactive imagery or visioning process developed by Dr. John Shaffer, which has come to be called Shaffering."
David Shackleton	Founder and President of Equality Enterprises Inc., David A. Shackleton is one of Canada’s leading advocates for real social and political equality between women and men, equality in which both women’s and men’s issues are understood and addressed. Editor and publisher for ten years of "Everyman - A Men's Journal", North America’s only magazine focused on balancing the issues of both women and men, he is a dynamic presenter and workshop leader on gender and personal growth, and is widely known for his comprehensive, original models which powerfully reframe gender by including men’s issues into the analytical context. He currently is the editor and publisher of Grip Magazine. Mr. Shackleton brings an unusual degree of empathy and empowerment to the gender dialogue by replacing the one-upmanship of the usual oppression model with a more compassionate view of gender as a largely unconscious transactional process by which we all attempt to get our human needs met. His corporate experience of ten years as an electrical engineer in companies both small and large and ten years as an engineering manager with Nortel Networks gives him a powerful insight into the challenges and rewards of business and organizational culture. The working title of Mr. Shackleton’s book-in-progress is The Hand that Rocks the World: A book about female power .
Dan Carroll	Dan Carroll is the proud father of four children: Dan Jr., 23; Kate, 22; Sarah, 18; and Nancy, 7 (2005). Three of his children have been raised in an amicable geographic shared parenting arrangement, while one of his children has been subject to a long-running Family Court intervention. Dan immigrated to Canada in 1998 after the removal of that child from the United States . Dan was graduated from Stanford University with a B.A., Economics, in 1975, and earned an MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1979. His professional experience includes two years as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer (Agriculture) in the Philippines, and 25 years as a Sales Rep, Manager, and Staff Manager at the IBM Corporation. He is currently assigned to IBM HQ in New York , and lives in Kanata , Ontario , where he maintains a home office remote from IBM. Dan has years of volunteer experience, including homeowners associations, United Way, Goodwill Industries, the Hispanic American Council of SW Michigan, Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of New York City, and the Midnight Basketball Program of Kalamazoo. Currently, he is Vice-Chair of the Kanata Food Cupboard.
Gene C. Colman	Family Law lawyer (www.4famlaw.com). In private practice since 1979, concentrating on family law issues – first at Hamilton’s Unified Family Court until 1988 and then in Toronto. Has been counsel in a number of precedent setting decisions, such as the first Ontario decision under the revised Divorce Act, 1986, where joint custody was ordered over the objections of one spouse. Married for 36 years - seven children. Has represented children in Hamilton’s Unified Family Court as a member of the Official Guardian’s Child Representation Panel (1980 - 1988). Is a founding editor of the Canadian Journal of Family Law and a current member of the advisory board. Has published many articles (www.4famlaw.com/cv). Is dedicated to gender equality and equal treatment for all in Ontario’s courts.