The applicant mother, Andrea Bolla, brought an application for custody in Ontario after wrongfully removing her two children from Botswana, where they habitually resided with the respondent father, Alias Swart.
The central issue was whether the Ontario court should accept jurisdiction, which required the applicant to establish a risk of "serious harm" to the children if returned to Botswana under s. 23 of the Children's Law Reform Act.
The court found the applicant's claims of abuse, corruption in the Botswana legal system, and the children's anxiety to be unsubstantiated or insufficient to meet the high threshold of "serious harm." The court ordered the children's return to Botswana for custody proceedings to continue there, with undertakings from the father to mitigate short-term harm.
