David Russell

The parties separated after a 16-year marriage.

The mother, a high-income anesthesiologist, sought sole decision-making responsibility and primary residence of their two children.

The father, an engineer, sought joint decision-making and equal parenting time, as well as spousal support.

The court ordered joint decision-making responsibility, with the mother having final say on medical issues.

The father was granted regular parenting time, but the 14-year-old daughter's overnights were left to her discretion.

The father was awarded non-compensatory spousal support of $3,346 per month for a fixed duration, and the mother was ordered to pay 100% of the children's section 7 expenses, which was factored into the spousal support quantum.

During a family law trial regarding custody and access, the respondent father sought to introduce a surreptitious audio recording he made of a session with the court-appointed custody and access assessor.

The applicant mother opposed its admission on policy grounds.

The court held that while there are strong policy reasons against admitting surreptitious recordings in family law and of court-appointed assessors, the recording had high probative value to test the assessor's reliability and potential bias regarding a specific incident highlighted in her report.

The court admitted the recording for the limited purpose of cross-examining the assessor on that discrete incident.

The appellant appealed convictions for two counts of assault arising from incidents involving his spouse.

He argued that the trial judge reversed the burden of proof and that his trial counsel provided ineffective assistance.

The summary conviction appeal court held that the trial judge’s reasons, read contextually, correctly articulated and applied the burden of proof and properly applied the W.D. framework when assessing credibility.

The court further held that the appellant failed to demonstrate a miscarriage of justice resulting from alleged deficiencies in trial counsel’s preparation, cross-examination strategy, or courtroom performance.

The appeal was dismissed.