Annalisa S. Rasaiah

This is a costs decision following a 21-day trial in a custody and access dispute between the parents of a child.

The father brought an application and motion to change seeking sole custody and variation of access, while the mother opposed these claims.

The father was completely unsuccessful, and the trial resulted in termination of detailed paternal access provisions and replacement with access subject to the child's wishes.

The mother sought costs on a full recovery basis totalling $102,700.

The court awarded costs of $81,046 plus GST, finding the mother was the successful party and entitled to costs from the date of her settlement offer on a full recovery basis, while excluding costs relating to certain discrete motions that should have been dealt with at the time they were heard.

The Children's Aid Society of Algoma brought a motion for summary judgment seeking a finding that four children were in need of protection and that their mother was not an appropriate caregiver.

The mother had an extensive history with the Society spanning decades, including her own childhood as a Crown Ward, and demonstrated persistent inability to provide adequate supervision, maintain stable housing, manage substance abuse and mental health issues, and exercise appropriate parenting judgment.

The court found that the children were in need of protection under the Child and Family Services Act and that the mother could not be placed in full-time care of the children, though supervised access would continue.

A 20-day trial in a high-conflict custody and access dispute involving a child who was 15 years old at the time of judgment.

The father sought to vary custody from the mother to himself and sought access enforcement orders.

The mother opposed the variation and sought to restrict paternal access to the child's wishes and subject to Children's Aid Society approval.

The court found that a material change in circumstances had occurred since the prior 2003 consent order, primarily due to a traumatic incident at the father's cottage in 2006 where the father was highly intoxicated and engaged in dangerous behavior, and allegations of sexual abuse by the child.

The court dismissed the father's claim for custody variation and access enforcement, finding that the child's estrangement from her father was a natural response to his conduct rather than parental alienation by the mother.

The court terminated the detailed access provisions of the 2003 order and replaced them with a provision that access would be subject to the child's wishes.