Rochelle Fern Cantor

This decision concerns a motion under section 79 of the Substitute Decisions Act, 1992, regarding the capacity of Carol Jacqueline Black.

The Court orders that Ms. Black undergo a capacity assessment, with her medical records and related materials to be released to all parties and the assessor.

The Court addresses the history of the parties' disputes, the involvement of various professionals, and the need for independent legal representation for Ms. Black.

The ruling balances the privacy interests of Ms. Black with the need for a fair process and the protection of vulnerable persons.

The applicant father brought a contempt motion against the respondent mother for alleged breaches of a December 2021 final order, specifically regarding facilitation of parenting time, provision of government documents (birth certificate, passport), and a list of medical professionals.

The court found the mother was in willful breach of the order concerning parenting time and document provision, but declined to make a formal finding of contempt.

The court emphasized that contempt is a remedy of last resort, and alternative enforcement measures, such as temporary consent orders already in place, had rectified the non-compliance and were in the child's best interests.

The motion for contempt was dismissed.

The applicant mother brought a motion to dispense with the respondent father's consent for international travel to New Zealand with their children for a funeral.

The respondent father brought a cross-motion seeking conditions for the travel and an order for their eldest child to continue at Mildenhall Montessori School, with tuition costs to be considered a section 7 expense.

The court granted the mother's motion to dispense with consent without conditions, dismissing the father's requested terms.

The court ordered the eldest child to continue at Mildenhall for the 2019/20 academic year, with the father solely responsible for the tuition, and adjourned the determination of whether tuition is a section 7 expense to trial.

The case was designated for case management by Justice Gilmore due to high conflict.

This case addresses a dispute between separated parents over the choice of school for their two daughters.

The applicant father sought to keep the children in their current school, St. Elizabeth Seton, which they had attended since Junior Kindergarten.

The respondent mother wished to transfer them to St. Edmund, a school closer to her parents' home, citing a shorter commute and higher Fraser Institute rankings.

The court, applying the "best interests of the child" principle, found no compelling reason to change schools.

It prioritized the children's established friendships, stable environment, and relationship with the father over the mother's preferences and the academic rankings.

The court also critiqued the reliance on Fraser Institute rankings without expert evidence and noted the diminished weight of the OCL report due to lack of cross-examination.

The father's position was upheld, and the mother was ordered to pay costs.

The court addressed an application for advice and direction regarding the interpretation of "issue" in a 1977 will, specifically whether a child born outside marriage was entitled to inherit.

The court regretfully concluded that, due to the explicit temporal limitation in section 1(4) of the Succession Law Reform Act (which applied its new presumption of inclusion only to wills made on or after March 31, 1978), the common law presumption (excluding children born outside marriage) applied to the will in question.

Consequently, the grandson born outside marriage was not entitled to a share of the estate.