Nirjari Parth Desai

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 applicant father brought a motion seeking a temporary order for primary residency of the child, a change in school, disallowing the mother from school pick-ups, a 12-panel hair follicle drug test for the mother, and suspension of the mother's parenting time, along with child support adjustments.

The court found a material change in circumstances due to the mother's unexplained absence from the child's life for approximately eight months following the signing of Minutes of Settlement.

The court granted the father primary residency and ordered drug testing for the mother, structuring a slow reintegration of her parenting time contingent on clean urine tests.

The request to change the child's school was denied at this stage, and child support obligations were adjusted, with the mother ordered to pay support to the father.