Building consistency | Pamela Cross

By Pamela Cross ( March 17, 2022, 9:25 AM EDT) -- Canada’s Constitution Act, in ss. 91 and 92, clearly sets out federal and provincial jurisdiction over different aspects of family law. The feds handle divorce, including any corollary issues such as parenting arrangements, child and spousal support and division of property raised in the context of an application for divorce. To provincial — and, by extension, territorial — governments go everything else: essentially, the above issues where the parties are not seeking a divorce, whether married or not, as well as safety-related issues such as restraining/protection orders and orders for exclusive possession of the matrimonial home....