P. Vandervet

This is a temporary care hearing under Part III of the Child and Family Services Act concerning three children.

The Children's Aid Society sought placement determination among three competing family plans: the maternal grandmother, the mother, and the father.

The court determined that the maternal grandmother had acquired "charge" of the children through a series of voluntary relinquishments by the parents beginning in March 2015, and that this status was maintained through subsequent kinship and temporary care agreements.

The court found that a supervision order was sufficient to mitigate risk and placed the children with the maternal grandmother subject to supervision terms.

The court also directed the Society to update its Plan of Care to address services for the children and adjourned the matter to permit parties to negotiate terms of parental access.

This is a temporary care hearing under Part III of the Child and Family Services Act concerning three children.

The central issue determined by the court is who had charge of the children immediately prior to the Society's intervention.

The court found that the two older children were in the charge of their father, M.S., and the youngest child was in the charge of his father, S.D., immediately prior to intervention.

The mother, A.J., had abandoned the children in August 2015 to pursue substance abuse and was subsequently incarcerated intermittently.

The court applied the legal test for temporary care orders, focusing on the nature of the active caring relationship rather than legal custody.

A custody and access trial involving two young children born to unmarried parents who cohabited at the paternal grandparents' home before separating in January 2011.

The father sought sole custody with alternate weekend access to the mother; the mother sought sole custody with specific weekly access and child support from the father.

The court awarded sole custody to the father based on his more stable lifestyle, superior parenting regime, and demonstrated commitment to the children's welfare, while granting the mother significant access on alternate weekends and holidays.

The court found that the father's structured parenting approach was more beneficial than the mother's less supervised approach, and that the children responded better behaviorally in the father's care.

The court terminated the father's child support obligation as of September 1, 2012.