Chapter 14. Marriage and Family
14.3 Challenges Families Face
As the structure of family changes over time, so do the challenges families face. Events like divorce and remarriage present new difficulties for families and individuals. Other long-standing domestic issues, such as abuse, continue to strain the health and stability of families.
Divorce and Remarriage
Divorce, while fairly common and accepted in modern Canadian society, was once a word that would only be whispered and was accompanied by gestures of disapproval. Prior to the introduction of the Divorce Act in 1968 there was no federal divorce law in Canada. In provincial jurisdictions where there were divorce laws, spouses had to prove adultery or cruelty in court. The 1968 Divorce Act broadened the grounds for divorce to include mental and physical cruelty, desertion, and/or separation for more than three years, and imprisonment. In 1986, the Act was amended again to make “breakdown of marriage” the sole ground for divorce. Couples could divorce after one year’s separation, and there was no longer a requirement to prove “fault” by either spouse.
These legislative changes had immediate consequences on the divorce rate. In 1961, divorce was generally uncommon, affecting only 36 out of every 100,000 married persons. In 1969, the year after the introduction of the Divorce Act, the number of divorces doubled from 55 divorces per 100,000 population to 124. The divorce rate peaked in 1987, after the 1986 amendment, at 362 divorces per 100,000 population. Over the last quarter century divorce rates have dropped steadily, reaching 221 divorces per 100,000 population in 2005 (Kelly, 2010). The dramatic increase in divorce rates after the 1960s has been associated with the liberalization of divorce laws (as noted above); the shift in societal makeup, including the increase of women entering the workforce (Michael, 1978); and marital breakdowns in the large cohort of baby boomers (Kelly, 2010). The decrease in divorce rates can be attributed to two probable factors: an increase in the age at which people get married, and an increased level of education among those who marry — both of which have been found to promote greater marital stability.
| Province or Territory | 1961 | 1968 | 1969 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1990 | 1995 | 2000 | 2005 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canada-wide | 36.0 | 54.8 | 124.2 | 238.9 | 298.8 | 362.3 | 282.3 | 262.2 | 231.2 | 220.7 |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 1.3 | 3.0 | 20.0 | 96.6 | 118.8 | 193.7 | 175.5 | 170.6 | 169.9 | 153.5 |
| Prince Edward Island | 7.6 | 18.2 | 91.9 | 166.3 | 154.5 | 213.1 | 214.4 | 191.0 | 197.0 | 204.8 |
| Nova Scotia | 33.2 | 64.8 | 102.1 | 263.3 | 292.4 | 307.8 | 265.1 | 244.6 | 218.2 | 209.5 |
| New Brunswick | 32.4 | 22.9 | 55.3 | 187.3 | 237.6 | 273.1 | 228.7 | 191.6 | 227.3 | 192.2 |
| Québec | 6.6 | 10.2 | 49.2 | 236.4 | 282.5 | 324.7 | 291.6 | 274.5 | 231.2 | 203.0 |
| Ontario | 43.9 | 69.3 | 160.4 | 223.4 | 290.7 | 4