Law360 Canada ( June 3, 2022, 12:02 PM EDT) -- Appeal by the maternal grandmother from a judgment of the Prince Edward Island Court of Appeal that granted custody of the eight-year-old child to the father. After an alleged incident of domestic violence, the mother left the father in Alberta and moved to Prince Edward Island without telling him she was pregnant. After the child’s birth, the maternal grandmother cared for the child for extensive periods due to the mother’s significant mental health issues. The child was apprehended by the Director of Child Protection in 2018 when the mother’s condition worsened and she refused to allow the grandmother to contact the child. The Director entered into a foster parenting agreement with the grandmother and placed the child in her day-to-day care. In 2019, the Director contacted the father and advised him of the child. The Director allowed the father to visit the child and supported his bid for permanent custody. After the grandmother successfully applied for an order designating her a “parent” under the Child Protection Act, the Director ended the foster parenting arrangement with the grandmother, limited her contact with the child, and placed the child with foster parents before sending the child to Alberta. At a disposition hearing, the hearing judge concluded that it was in the child’s best interests to be placed with the grandmother. A majority of the Court of Appeal granted custody to the father on the basis that the hearing judge considered an irrelevant factor, being the Director’s conduct, and failed to consider the father’s argument that as a natural parent, his custody claim should be favoured....