Fryer J.

This was a costs ruling following a successful application by the father under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

The court had previously ordered the return of the parties' child to Illinois, finding she had been wrongfully retained in Ontario by the mother.

The father sought full recovery costs of $36,356.06, while the mother argued that no costs should be payable due to her financial circumstances and her focus on the child's best interests.

The court found the mother's litigation conduct and her late-stage challenge to the child's habitual residence to be unreasonable, ultimately ordering her to pay the father $33,000.00 in costs.

The parties separated after an 11-year marriage.

The trial addressed the equalization of net family property and spousal support.

The respondent sought to include a $500,000 settlement payment the applicant made to his first wife as a date-of-marriage liability or as grounds for an unequal division of property; the court dismissed both arguments.

The court imputed income to both parties, finding the respondent intentionally underemployed.

The applicant was ordered to pay an equalization payment and a lump sum for spousal support based on the high end of the SSAG for an eight-year duration, less credits for post-separation overpayments.

The applicant, a self-represented family lawyer, brought a motion to remove Epstein Cole LLP as solicitors of record for his ex-wife in their family law dispute.

He argued that lawyers from the firm would be called as witnesses regarding their alleged interference with his livelihood and application for judicial appointment, and that they harboured animus toward him creating a conflict of interest.

The court dismissed the motion, finding no real likelihood that the lawyers would be called as witnesses, no evidence of untoward animus, and that removing the respondent's counsel of choice would cause her significant prejudice.