Case law
Recent Case: Imputing Income Beyond the Minimum Wage
Osanebi v. Osanebi 2023 ONSC 2546 This is an endorsement based on an application for an uncontested trial. The mother in this case sought the following relief: a divorce, decision-making responsibility for her two children and child support. The mother and father were married for 6 years before they separated. The father relocated to Nigeria and has not been involved in the children’s lives…
Read moreCase Law: Temporary Parenting Orders and Religion
SMO v MJO, 2022 ONSC 5084 Written by: Yiwei Bian, Student Volunteer and Thijiba Sinnathamby, Staff Lawyer This is an interesting court decision that addresses how to reconcile one parent’s desire to raise their children in their faith when the other parent is concerned about the faith itself and how its administration effects the children. The…
Read moreRecent Case: Retroactive Child Support and Imputing Income
Ogunware v Ganiyu, 2022 ONSC 5254 This is a trial court decision where the issues before the court were whether the father should pay retroactive child support to the mother to the date of separation and whether an income of $100,000 should be imputed to the father for child support. The mother and father began…
Read moreRecent case: Best interests of the child and family violence
McIntosh v Baker 2022 ONSC 4235 This case provides a thorough analysis of the best interest of the child test in the context of family violence. While this case touches on property issues and child support, it will not be the focus of this case comment. The applicant mother and respondent father have three young…
Read moreRecent case: Relocation in the context of family violence
This case summary of A.J.K. v J.P.B. 2022 MBQB 43 was prepared by Pamela Cross. While this is a Manitoba case and, therefore, not binding on Ontario courts, the decision is interesting because of the extensive exploration of family violence in the context of the mother’s request to move with the children without providing notice…
Read moreCase update: Status quo and maximum contact
In the case of Theriault v Ford 2022 ONSC 3619, the court considered what “status quo” and “maximum contact” mean within the context of the amendments to the Divorce Act and Children’s Law Reform Act. This case involves parents of two children who were married to each other for 8 years before separating. The father was charged with…
Read moreRecent case: Supreme Court mobility decision
In Barendregt v Grebliunas, the Supreme Court of Canada considered which parent should have primary responsibility for their two young children and whether the mother could relocate them to a town some distance from where they had been living with their father. The family was living in Kelowna, British Columbia, when, following an assault by the…
Read moreRecent family law case: Tort of family violence
Ahluwalia v. Ahluwalia 2022 ONSC 1303 This recent case has taken Ontario’s legal community by storm. Justice Mandhane of Ontario’s Superior Court has awarded the mother in this case $150,000.00 in compensatory, aggregated and punitive damages for the tort of family violence. This is a ground-breaking decision for survivors of family violence and one that…
Read moreRecent case: Disclosure obligations for executive employees
Ali v. Sayilgan 2022 ONSC 2051 In keeping with our theme of exploring financial disclosure obligations in family court proceedings, the following case comment provides a good overview of the proportionality of disclosure where one party works as an executive employee. In this case, the respondent mother brought a motion for production from the applicant…
Read moreRecent case: Cost award based on conduct
D.C.A. v. A.E.C., 2022 ONSC 1002: This recent case demonstrates an effective use of Rule 1(8) of the Family Law Rules, where one party is ordered to pay costs for sending harassing emails to the other even though there was an order limiting communications between them. D.C.A., the applicant father and A.E.C., the respondent mother are…
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