Justice A. Guay

The Children's Aid Society sought a "with prejudice" section 51 order placing a child in interim care.

The child had been in care for over 554 days, exceeding statutory limits.

The respondent mother sought return of the child or placement with her mother; the respondent father sought placement with his mother.

The court found that while the parents had made some progress in addressing personal and parenting issues, the risk of harm remained.

The court ordered interim placement of the child with the maternal grandmother under Society supervision, finding the risk manageable under reasonable conditions.

The court also ordered separate supervised access for the respondent father and paternal grandmother, and directed the Society to conduct a home assessment of the maternal grandmother's residence.

A youth accused was charged with sexual assault, sexual touching, and inviting a child to sexual touching arising from an incident during a family visit where the complainant and accused were alone in a bedroom.

The court found the complainant's evidence credible and consistent with surrounding circumstances, rejecting the accused’s denial as unconvincing.

The evidence established that the accused touched the complainant’s vagina inside her clothing and forced her hand to touch his penis.

The court found the actus reus and mens rea of sexual assault proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

Applying the Kienapple principle, the court stayed the additional counts of sexual touching and invitation to sexual touching as they arose from the same factual transaction.