In a decision handed down on January 25th, 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada dealt with a Charter challenge to certain spousal support and property division articles in the Québec Civil Code. These provisions only applied to married or civil union spouses and it was argued that these provisions were unconstitutional under section 15(1) of [...]

The third question on my first year property law exam asked whether Canadian law classified body parts (organs, limbs and reproductive material) as property. Unfortunately for my class, Justice Russell of the Supreme Court of British Columbia answered that question on April 25th, 2012 in J.C.M v A.N.A. 2012 BCSC 584–two short weeks after the [...]

A common law relationship is when two people live together in a marriage-like relationship. The two people can be of the same sex or the opposite sex. For Ontario family law purposes, you must cohabitate for 3 years, or have a child and a relationship of some permanence. Despite the decreased rate of marriage and [...]

Facts and Background On November 26, 2010, the SCC decided the criminal case of R. v. Tran, 2010 SCC 58 – an appeal for a conviction of second-degree murder by a former Edmonton Sun production plant worker that clarified the defence of provocation for violent spouses. The facts of the case seem straight out of [...]

January 14, 2011 marked the ten-year anniversary of the first same-sex marriages registered in Canada. In 2001, two couples were the first to marry at the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto (MCCT), but the Ontario and Canadian governments refused to recognize the marriages as legal. What followed was a legal challenge to the definition of [...]

The Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) has released its decision in NIL/TU,O Child and Family Services Society v. B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union, 2010 SCC 45 (“NIL/TU,O”). TheCourt.ca had first brought the B.C. Court of Appeal case to light nearly two years ago here. In its judgment, released November 4, the SCC re-visited the test for [...]

This November, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) will weave in and around federal and provincial legislation that has generated consternation over divorce and property division equity in Canadian provinces. The judges will hear party submissions from the Manitoba Court of Appeal (“MCA”) decision of Schreyer v. Schreyer, 2009 MBCA 84, a judgment that ultimately released [...]

Later this year, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in the companion cases Kerr v. Baranow, 2009 BCCA 111 and Vanasse v. Seguin, 2009 ONCA 595. Both concern the rules for allocating spousal support between separated common law partners. While I do not expect the cases to add much beyond a gloss on an already robust line [...]

On August 27 of this year, the Supreme Court of Canada granted leaved to appeal in Kerr v. Baranow, 2009 BCCA 111, a family law case concerning the application of the equitable doctrine of resulting trust. In this case, the parties commenced their common-law relationship in 1981, when Ms. Kerr was in a financial crisis due [...]

When families break down, Canadian courts are often charged with the difficult and unenviable task of determining custodial and access arrangements in the “best interests” of an affected child. Ontario’s Child and Family Services Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. C.11, provides a number of relevant factors to be considered in making such determinations, one of which [...]