Abeer Iftikhar

The appellant sought extensive interim relief effectively staying both an interim family law order and further steps in related Ontario Court of Justice proceedings pending appeal.

The court accepted that the motion judge had erred in treating the commencement of a Superior Court application as creating an automatic stay under s. 36(1) of the Family Law Act, but held that the error did not justify relief because any stay still had to be affirmatively established.

Applying the RJR-MacDonald framework, the court found a serious issue in the narrow sense of legal error, but no irreparable harm from requiring the appellant to continue complying with procedural directions in the long-running family proceeding.

The balance of convenience strongly favoured the respondent, given the appellant's duplicative proceedings, prior non-compliance, outstanding costs, and the advanced state of the Ontario Court of Justice litigation.

Family law trial following divorce proceedings between separated spouses with two young children.

The court determined parenting arrangements, decision-making responsibility, child support, and ancillary issues including a name change request and international travel restrictions.

The court ordered split primary residence, with the son residing primarily with the father and the daughter residing primarily with the mother, finding each child's best interests were served by maintaining their established primary relationships and school ties.

Sole decision-making responsibility was allocated to each parent for their respective child of primary residence.

The court dismissed the applicant's request to change the daughter's middle name, declined to award retroactive child support, ordered prospective table child support of $175/month net (split parenting), and imposed a prohibition on international travel without the written consent of the other parent or a court order.