Brian W. Bond

The appellant father appealed an Ontario Superior Court order requiring the return of his 14-year-old son to Canada from Oklahoma.

The child had been living in Oklahoma with the father, and U.S. courts had previously refused the respondent mother's Hague Convention petition for the child's return, citing the child's mature objection to returning to Canada under Article 13(2).

The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal, holding that the Ontario courts should decline jurisdiction in favour of the Oklahoma courts based on principles of comity and deference to the U.S. courts' reasonable interpretation of the Hague Convention.

The respondent brought an ex parte motion in the Superior Court for an order confirming her entitlement to interim and permanent custody of her child based on a Sri Lankan order, and for the return of the child from Oklahoma.

The motion judge granted the order for interim and permanent custody and the return of the child.

The appellant appealed.

The Court of Appeal held that the motion judge erred in principle by making an order for permanent custody on an ex parte motion.

The appeal was allowed in part, the permanent custody order was set aside, and the temporary order was stayed pending a motion by the appellant to set it aside in the Superior Court.