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Human rights complaint filed over child abduction

The Surrey Leader, UK
June 7, 2006
Dan Ferguson
www.surreyleader.com

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Wednesday June 7, 2006

The European Court of Human Rights is being asked to intervene in Nathalie Gettliffe’s fight against Canadian and French court orders requiring her to return her two children to their father in Surrey.

The application filed by Gettliffe’s lawyer complains the courts in France violated article 6 of the European convention on human rights that guarantees “a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial tribunal.”

Between 2004 and 2006, Gettliffe made three applications to French courts to have them give her custody, and they refused each time, directing her to return the children to their father, Surrey resident Scott Grant.

The Gettliffe application argues the French judges should have heard testimony by the children, 12-year-old Max and 10-year-old Josephine.

Gettliffe was arrested in Vancouver on April 10 when she returned to B.C. to complete her PhD by defending her thesis before a panel of professors.

She has been held in custody since, refusing to return the children to their father.

She is five months pregnant with a child by her common-law spouse Francis Gruzelle, a French journalist who has written stories supporting her fight to keep her children in France.

Gettliffe and Gruzelle have claimed that Grant belongs to a dangerous cult and the children would be harmed if they were returned to his custody.

Grant, a Surrey financial planner has repeatedly denied the charge, calling it a ruse to justify Gettliffe’s refusal to obey the courts.

Following her arrest, Gettliffe was denied bail on May 11 by Richmond Provincial Court Judge Margaret Rae, who said Gettliffe could not be trusted to remain in Canada until her trial.

“Her position appears to be that the Court and Crown are bound by the laws of the land, and the decisions of the court, but she is entitled to ignore them because she doesn’t agree with their decisions,” Rae said, noting Gettliffe has refused to return her son and daughter to the custody of their father despite repeated orders.

Gettliffe’s lawyer has applied to have the case moved to B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver to allow a trial before a jury.

She has also demanded the trial be conducted in French, which has led to the appointment of a second French-speaking prosecutor to conduct the case.

Gettliffe and Grant split up in July 2000 and signed a separation agreement that gave custody of the children to their mother, but provided the father with regular access.

The terms of agreement were that the children would not be moved from the jurisdiction of the court without his consent. When Grant refused to let her take the children to France in 2001, she fled the country with them.