Appeal of a motion judge's order granting sole custody to the father in a child custody dispute.
The mother had taken the 13-year-old son to India in 2013 under the guise of visiting her ill mother and did not return him despite a court order.
The motion judge found Ontario had jurisdiction based on the child's habitual residence and granted the father sole custody.
The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal, finding that the father had attorned to the Indian courts by seeking a final custody order based on Indian law, and therefore Ontario should have declined jurisdiction.
The Court also found that the motion judge erred by making a final custody order without considering the best interests of the child factors required by statute.
