Parents appealed an Ontario Court of Justice order enforcing a Quebec youth protection order requiring their children to be returned to Quebec after the families relocated to Ontario.
The lower court had relied on the Children’s Law Reform Act to recognize and enforce the Quebec order.
The Superior Court held that a children’s aid society is not a “person” with standing to seek enforcement under the CLRA in this context and that the Act’s enforcement provisions were designed for private custody disputes, not state child protection proceedings.
The court further found that certain parents had not received proper notice of the Quebec proceedings.
The appeal was allowed and the enforcement order requiring the children’s return to Quebec was set aside, with the matter remitted for Ontario child protection proceedings under the Child and Family Services Act.
