Case law
Factors judges are considering in back to school cases during the pandemic
The following is a list of factors judges have considered in a number of recent Ontario family court decisions that dealt with cases whether or not children should attend school in-person. Please remember that family court decisions are based on the individual facts of a family’s situation. You cannot assume that these factors will determine…
Read moreAnother pandemic/school case: Importance of evidence
A.B. v L.J. 2020 ONSC 5248: In this case, the parents have joint custody of their two young children. The children are primarily resident with the mother, who has final decision-making authority. The mother and children had been living in Port Perry and the father in Burlington, where the children spent time with him on alternate…
Read moreRecent case: Back to school during the pandemic
The case of Chase v Chase, 2020 ONSC 5083, provides a decision that offers clear thinking about what should happen when separated parents disagree on whether children should return to in-class learning this fall. Pursuant to a separation agreement signed by the parents in 2017, the child spends equal time with each parent on a…
Read moreCOVID-19 legal cases: Vaccinations, supervised access
COVID-19 vaccination In Tarkowski v Lemieux 2020 CarswellOnt 8070 (C.J.), Justice Jones dealt with the issue of how the parents would make decisions about having their child vaccinated, when and if a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available. The six-year-old daughter had lived primarily with the mother since the parents separated in 2015. There had been a…
Read moreRecent COVID-19 case: Denial of access
Robinson v Darrah 2020 O.J. No. 2016, Ontario Superior Court of Justice: The father brought a motion to have his access to the child resumed and for police assistance in ensuring compliance. The child has lived with the mother since the parties separated in mid 2015, when the child was a few months old. The…
Read moreCOVID legal cases: Removing a child, self-help measures, urgency, parenting arrangements, case conferences
Removing a child from Ontario during pandemic Gillespie v Jones, 2020 CarswellOnt 5720 (S.C.J.): The child and mother live in Ontario, pursuant to a 2017 order from a British Columbia court, where they had been living following the parents’ separation. The father remained in B.C. and was scheduled to spend a week with the child…
Read moreCOVID legal cases: Guidelines & using court resources
More guidelines from Justice Pazaratz Justice Pazaratz sits as the triage judge in the Superior Court of Justice in Hamilton. He has seen a significant number of cases during the pandemic and has had to make decisions about whether or not those cases meet the standard of urgent as set by Chief Justice Morawetz in…
Read moreCOVID-19 legal cases: Backlog, contempt of court, child protection
COVID-19 decision: Minimizing the backlog J.T.K. v. A.E.M. 2020 CarswellOnt 6682 (C.J.): After weeks of being told that the courts can only deal with the most urgent of situations, that parents are expected to work out their differences on their own and that parties are expected, most of the time, to maintain the status quo,…
Read moreCOVID-19 case: Urgent or case conference?
In Edwards v Robinson 2020 ONSC 2956, the mother brought an urgent motion on May 1st for the return of the parties’ two youngest children (the oldest is 20 years old) to her by the father, who had had them since March 25th. The mother made allegations of domestic violence, which the father disputed, alleging in response…
Read moreRecent Court Decision: “In the long run, self-help will turn out to be a big mistake”
McNeil v McGuinness 2020 ONSC 1918 In this case, which was identified by the court as having “a long history of conflict and litigation since the parties separated in 2012,” Justice Pazaratz declined to find the father’s motion to be urgent as set out in the March 15, 2020 Notice to the Profession. In his…
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