Family
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August 08, 2025
Ontario Court of Appeal balances family situation, job loss in sentence reduction
How does a court balance the profound harm caused by sexual violence with the significant collateral consequences that imprisonment imposes on offenders and their families, especially when the offence occurred years ago?
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August 07, 2025
Court cuts defendant children’s aid societies’ costs by 40% in birth alerts case
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has decreased children’s aid societies’ costs request by 40 per cent due to public interest concerns relating to a proposed class action against them for the discriminatory act of birth alerts.
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August 07, 2025
The Friendly Bar Series, No. 7: Out of office, out of guilt — the radical act of taking a real break
Let me say this plainly: lawyers need to take time off, fully, unapologetically and with the courage to say so.
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August 07, 2025
Can a person have more than one spouse under estate law?
It may sound surprising, but under British Columbia’s Wills, Estates and Succession Act (WESA), it is indeed possible for someone to have more than one legal “spouse,” at least for the purpose of dividing an estate when there’s no will.
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August 06, 2025
Court orders fresh determination of family’s residency application due to counsel failures
The Federal Court has allowed a redetermination of a family’s permanent residence application on humanitarian and compassionate grounds due to ineffective representation by previous counsel.
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August 06, 2025
Quebec appeal court rejects constitutional challenge over kafala
A constitutional challenge against federal and Quebec regulations that allow Canadian residents to sponsor a child for family reunification only if the child is their biological or adoptive child was rebuffed by the Quebec Court of Appeal in a ruling that underlines the challenges facing Canadian citizens or residents of Muslim faith who want to sponsor a child though kafala, a form of legal guardianship in Muslim law countries.
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August 05, 2025
Canada renews temporary aid for Palestinians unable to return home
Ottawa has extended the temporary “special measures” for Palestinians who are in Canada and unable to return home, which were first rolled out in December 2023.
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August 05, 2025
Parenting adult children with disabilities post-divorce
In D.F. v. R.W.F., 2025 ONCA 129, the Ontario Court of Appeal tackled the rare but increasingly important question of how family courts should manage decision-making and parenting arrangements for an adult child with a permanent cognitive disability — in this case, a 22-year-old man with Down syndrome who functions at the level of a four-year-old. This decision provides critical guidance to judges, lawyers and family mediator/arbitrators navigating parenting disputes that involve adult children who remain lifelong dependents.
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August 05, 2025
B.C. report calls for centralized hub, dedicated phone line for legal information
A report from a group of academics in British Columbia is recommending the province take steps to strengthen public legal education. The “Flourishing” report, which was prepared as part of the public legal education and information (PLEI) sectoral planning project at the University of British Columbia (UBC) school of law, says there is a wide array of high-quality, easily accessible, clearly written legal information available in B.C., which the authors call the “public legal education and information ecosystem.”
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August 01, 2025
Manitoba court clarifies proof standards for will challenges
For a will to be recognized as valid, the testator must have known and approved of its contents. Typically, knowledge and approval are presumed when a will is submitted for probate, provided it was duly executed.