The applicant mother sought an urgent temporary custody order after the respondent father refused to return their child to Ontario following an agreed-upon summer visit in Florida.
The father sent text messages indicating he had physically disciplined the child and intended to keep him in Florida permanently.
The court found that the child was habitually resident in Ontario under section 22 of the Children's Law Reform Act, giving the court jurisdiction to make an interim order.
The court granted temporary custody to the mother, finding it in the child's best interests to return to his established life in Ontario and away from the father's admitted physical abuse, pending a final determination under the Hague Convention in Florida.
