Hey folks,

I find myself in the middle of a custody battle to get my son for an equal time. I feel that the legal system has let me down. A quick background, the mother of my son (11months old) was emotionally abusive to me, withholding affection, making me feel inadequate, etc. We split while she was still pregnant, she completely cut me out of the pregnancy once I couldn't afford to continue to pay her bills (have paid over $20k, we were only together for 7 months). Once he was born, I didn't find out about him for 6 days, she wouldn't let me visit my son without supervision and only at her home, "In case I became aggressive again". There is no history of violence from me, in fact, many times I have been praised for my patience and ability to remain calm while in distress. We went into a contested trial, during that she made claims that I was emotionally and physically abusive towards her. And when she wouldn't "give me" sex I would get physically abusive. This was all disproved in court (I suggest everyone keep a log of text messages and emails). she also made the claim that I also was emotionally and physically abusive towards her other 3 children, this was said without any evidence. From this trial, there was an interim order laid down that I get my son every 2nd day for 2 hours to accommodate his need for breastmilk. At this point, he is only 3 months old.

Fast forward 4 months we have an informal meeting with a judge, from that she is firmly encouraged to express breast milk for him to feed during my time. Prior to this she "forbid" me to feed him. We are now 6 months since that last time in court, we have no progress I only see my son 2 hours every 2nd day. The mother won't entertain me having any more time with my son, she has never been able to give me a reason as to why. I am preparing to go back to court to get what's right. And for myself I feel "right" is that my son gets equal time with both his parents.

What I'm looking for here is a support group in Winnipeg, Canada. I have been in this fight since Dec 2016, my tank is empty. I have a great group of friends but I don't feel they fully understand the amount of stress that comes from something like this. I was hoping to find a group of dad's who may have gone through similar trauma.

Kind Regards!