HE'S RIGHT, OF COURSE:

Judge apologizes for saying he finds it's 'abhorrent' when parents split (Gordon Kent, Mike Sadava and Conal Mullan, 1/09/03, The Edmonton Journal)

A provincial court judge apologized yesterday for declaring he believes it "abhorrent" that couples who have children get divorced.

On Tuesday, Judge Al Chrumka lectured a separated couple, telling them, "as adults we have a responsibility to give (children) the very best that we can."

He went on to say that that parents should stay together for the benefit of their children, even "if that means we have to suffer as parents because we don't like each other any more."

In a news release issued by Assistant Chief Judge Peter Caffaro yesterday, Judge Chrumka apologized for the comments. Judge Chrumka "regrets that his words may have offended some members of the public. This was not his intention. His overriding concern was for the children involved," the release said.

Judge Chrumka made the comments during a sentencing hearing for a 25-year-old woman who left her two young sons -- aged two months and one year -- alone in a parked car for a half-hour on July 19. The temperature reached 24 degrees that day. The children were rescued when a police officer broke a window in the car. They were both taken to hospital with heat stroke.

What hope can you have for a culture where a man apologizes for defending the family in a lecture to a criminal who nearly killed her kids? Posted by Orrin Judd at January 9, 2003 9:54 AM