The Liberal government will repeal Section 43 of the Criminal Code which now protects parents and teachers who use spanking and other ‘reasonable’ force against children. The decision appears to make it essentially impossible to legally employ even the mildest form of force as a punishment without a qualifier in the new legislation. The Supreme Court of Canada upheld the ‘spanking law’ in 2004, ruling that physical force could be used by parents and schoolteachers on children between the ages of 2 and 12 years old. It said teachers could only physically remove a child from a classroom or “secure compliance with instructions” but could not use force as a form of corporal punishment. The high court said Section 43 could only be used as a defence for “minor corrective force of a transitory and trifling nature”. This rare consideration may or may not be referenced an any new law.