Case law
Case Summary: Grandparent contact with grandchildren
Family law legislation in a number of Canadian jurisdictions – Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta, New Brunswick and the Yukon – grants grandparents explicit rights to seek time with their grandchildren. However, neither the federal Divorce Act nor Ontario’s Children’s Law Reform Act does so, meaning that a grandparent in Ontario must rely on more general…
Read moreCase Summary: Family violence and parenting arrangements
In this decision, Justice Mandhane makes a number of important statements with respect to family violence and parenting arrangements. She also explores the concept of applying restorative justice principles in family law cases. Background The parents met online and began dating in 2009. They started living together in 2012 and got married in 2015. They…
Read moreCase Comment: Paralegals in family court
The mother, in this case, applied for leave to have a licensed paralegal act as her agent in a family law proceeding that involved parenting issues and family violence. While Justice Sah makes it clear that she has no concerns about the skills or integrity of the paralegal, she denies the mother’s motion. In December…
Read moreCase Comment: Contempt Motion
In this case, the father brought a contempt motion against the mother, alleging various breaches of the parenting provisions of a final court order. His motion claimed the mother had failed to provide documents related to the children, withheld the children from him, made false accusations against him and had spoken negatively about him to…
Read moreCase Comment: Parenting time and decision-making
This case, written by Justice Pazaratz, provides a good overview of status quo and without prejudice interim parenting orders. The applicant mother and the respondent father had one child together, who was eight years old at the time of this motion. The other respondent, who did not participate in the motion, was the mother of…
Read moreCase Summary: An interim parenting arrangements motion
This case explores the issue of family violence in the context of an interim parenting arrangements motion. The mother and father were married in India in 2017, after which they moved back and forth between India and Canada twice. They have two young daughters; one born in 2018 and the other in 2023. The mother…
Read moreNew Case Comment: Choice of School – Catchment Area
This case comment was prepared by Emily Ernst (law student volunteer) and Rachel Parry (Staff Lawyer). This case involved a dispute between parents over which school their child, aged 4, should attend, with both parents wanting the child to attend the public school in their local catchment area. The parents had already agreed to joint…
Read moreCase summary: Parenting time decision
The applicant father brought a motion for an order granting him unsupervised parenting time with the two children, who were 4 and 8 years old. The respondent mother, who was unrepresented, opposed this motion. As she had from the time of separation, she offered supervised parenting time in a supervised access centre as the appropriate…
Read moreCase summary: Returning children under the Hague Convention
This case summary was prepared by Pamela Cross. In this case (Y.S. v J.S., 2024 ONSC 1028), two young children – one and two years old – were removed from Pembroke, Ontario, by their mother and taken to the United States, ostensibly for a week-long visit with her sister. The father consented to this visit,…
Read moreCase summary: Important relocation decision
The Ontario Court of Appeal (ONCA) recently released a decision (Shipton v. Shipton) overturning a trial court decision that had prohibited a mother from relocating from Ontario to Ireland with her young child. The decision offers some helpful insights into what is required for an appeal court to overturn a decision from a lower court…
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