The applicant father brought an urgent pre-Case Conference motion seeking to reverse a unilateral change in school placement for the parties' six-year-old child, made by the respondent mother shortly after separation.
The mother had transferred the child from her established school in Hamilton to a school in Burlington, where the mother was temporarily residing with her parents.
The court held that the child's long-standing school placement constituted a status quo deserving protection under the best interests of the child analysis, and that no compelling justification existed to ratify the unilateral change.
The minor inconvenience of additional travel time did not outweigh the detriment of disrupting the child's established school environment.
The motion was granted and the child was ordered returned to her former school immediately.
