Family
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November 10, 2025
Judicial vacancies hit 5%, threatening more trial delays and backlogs
Ottawa is lagging again in filling the country’s federal benches, hitting a five per cent vacancy rate on Nov. 1, 2025 — mostly in the critical trial courts of Ontario, B.C. and Quebec, which are constitutionally obliged to conduct trials within a reasonable time or face the prospect of staying criminal cases.
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November 10, 2025
Canada’s 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan: Toward sustainable immigration
As I discussed in my Nov. 5, 2025, article, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) released the 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan, a comprehensive strategy aimed at stabilizing Canada’s immigration intake after years of record growth. Recently the government published a supplemental report to the plan with new information, which I’ve included in this updated article.
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November 10, 2025
Ontario appoints two new judges to Superior Court
Donna K. Kellway and Jennifer L. Swan have been appointed to the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario, the Department of Justice has announced.
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November 07, 2025
B.C. Court of Appeal narrows scope of stay orders in parenting and travel disputes
In T.F.R. v. Y.T., 2025 BCCA 349, the British Columbia Court of Appeal confirmed the extremely limited circumstances in which it may stay a parenting or travel order made under the Family Law Act, S.B.C. 2011, c. 25 (FLA).
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November 07, 2025
Stacey D. O’Neill appointed to Nova Scotia Supreme Court
Stacey D. O’Neill has been appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia (Family Division) in Halifax.
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November 06, 2025
B.C. expands early resolution program for family law cases to five more registries
British Columbia has expanded access to the Early Resolution Process (ERP) for family law to five additional provincial court family registries in an effort to expand access to fast and affordable family-law dispute resolutions.
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November 05, 2025
New federal immigration levels plan cuts targets for permanent & new temporary resident admissions
Ottawa’s three-year plan to reduce immigration to “sustainable” levels includes new “one-time” initiatives to “recognize eligible Protected Persons in Canada as permanent residents over the next two years” and to “accelerate the transition of up to 33,000 work permit holders to permanent residency in 2026 and 2027.”
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November 05, 2025
Canada’s 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan: Sharp temporary cuts, permanent stability
This article has been updated by removing irrelevant information.
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November 04, 2025
Maritime province supporting new sexual violence police unit
New Brunswick is throwing support behind a new sexual violence unit run by the RCMP in that province.
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November 04, 2025
What are appropriate parenting orders in contentious divorce involving mental health, family violence?
The matter of Deschamps v. Deschamps, 2025 ONSC 4737 involved a 10-year marriage with two children (ages 13 and nine at the time of the decision) who had grown estranged from their mother after a history of family violence committed by the father against the mother.