Katie Akey

This was a child protection status review hearing under the Child, Youth, and Family Services Act, 2017 (CYFSA) concerning the child LCT.

The Applicant Agency and the Respondent Mother asserted that protection concerns no longer existed, while the Respondent Father maintained they did.

The parties sought a deemed custody order, with the Agency proposing joint custody, the father seeking sole custody and primary residence to him, and the mother seeking sole custody and primary residence to her.

The court found that the child was no longer in need of protection and granted sole custody and primary residence to the mother, with regular scheduled access to the father.

The court found the father's and paternal grandmother's evidence self-serving and unreliable, noting the paternal grandmother's "invisible litigant" behaviour and its negative impact on the child's relationship with the mother.

The child welfare agency sought to proceed with a child protection trial but was unable to complete its trial directions due to the youth's new criminal charges and the agency's inability to obtain the youth's records from the Youth Court under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

The Superior Court of Justice adjourned the trial and provided a detailed analysis of the intersection between child welfare proceedings and youth criminal justice privacy provisions.

The court concluded that the agency has a right of access to the records under section 119 of the YCJA, although the Superior Court lacked jurisdiction to make the access order.