CUSTODY AND ACCESS - Access - Denial of or interference with

Law360 Canada (July 10, 2020, 6:14 AM EDT) -- Urgent motion by the respondent father to reinstate access, to increase his access, for a police enforcement order, and for a decrease in his child support payments. The motion was brought during the COVID-19 pandemic. The parties were the parents of a 6-year-old daughter. They were subject to a final order dated Jan. 15, 2016. That order set out the access/parenting schedule for the parties and gave the father access every other weekend as well as some weekday access and extended summer access in July and August. The father alleged that the mother had not permitted him to have an overnight access with his daughter since late February 2020. The father took the position that his motion was urgent. The mother resided with her mother, who had lung cancer and who was undergoing chemotherapy. The mother believed that if her mother were to contract COVID-19, it would be fatal. On May 21, 2020, the mother swore an affidavit stating that she now consented to the resumption of the parenting schedule set out in the January 2016 order.

HELD: Motion dismissed. The primary issue in this motion was resolved and was no longer urgent. The remaining issues did not satisfy the test for urgency. While a total denial of access might be urgent, a request for makeup weekends was not. The father’s request to expand his summer access was also not urgent. The father failed to provide any basis for ordering police enforcement, let alone for finding that a motion for police enforcement was urgent. He provided no information that would enable the court to decide that his motion to reduce child support was urgent. He could not refuse to disclose his financial information and claim that his motion to reduce his financial obligations was urgent. This decision was without prejudice to the father’s right to renew the motion once regular court operations resumed.

Skinner v. Skinner, [2020] O.J. No. 2324, Ontario Superior Court of Justice, R. Charney J., May 25, 2020. Digest No. TLD-July62020009 


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