Court File and Parties

Court File Number: FS-12-00378096-001 Court: Superior Court of Justice (Ontario) Location: 393 University Avenue, 10th Floor, Toronto, ON M5G 1E6 Date: April 1, 2020

Applicant(s): Mills, C. Counsel for Applicant(s): Larock, M. (Present), Duty Counsel (Present)

Respondent(s): Mills, P. and 1355101 Ontario Ltd. Counsel for Respondent(s): Malcki, M. and Niman, H. (Present), Duty Counsel (Present)

Before: Shore, J.

Endorsement

Order to go in accordance with minutes of settlement or consent filed.

[1] Factums required on all motions 2 days before. The parties filed a 14B motion on consent for an order setting a trial date for the week of September 21, 2020 for a six-day trial. This issue is not urgent, as defined under the current Notice from the Chief Justice of Ontario and I am declining to exercise my discretion as the triage judge in making the order requested in this matter for reasons set out below. The matter began in 2018, as a motion to vary a final order for support, initiated by the Respondent. There is a long history of delay in this file, set out in previous orders. I am not going to repeat a rendition of the history in this endorsement. In October 2019, a long motion was heard and the decision of Horkins, J. was released on October 29, 2019. Justice Horkins made a finding that the matter needed to proceed to trial and ordered the parties to agree on a trial date before May 4, 2020. The parties could not agree on a date at the time of the long motion but have now agreed to the date of September 21, 2020. In the interim, all matters before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice have been suspended as a result of COVID-19. Any trials scheduled to be heard on or after March 17, 2020, and at least until the end of April 2020 (and quite possibly longer) have been adjourned. Parties are required to attend scheduling court in June to obtain new trial dates. At this time, the Court is also not scheduling any future trials in advance of the June scheduling court. The Court is still in the process of determining how trials dates will be assigned at the scheduling court and whether certain cases need to be given priority. In light of the above, I am not prepared to allow these parties to jump the queue and obtain a future date in advance of the scheduling court, even if on consent. In declining to exercise my discretion I have also considered the primary objective as set out rule 2(2) of the Family Law Rules. Cases must be dealt with justly. As set out in Rule 2(3), dealing with a case justly includes “(d) giving appropriate court resources to the case while taking account of the need to give resources to other cases. O. Reg. 114/99, r. 2 (3) .”. As per the directive of the Chief Justice, the parties or counsel shall attend court on Monday June 1st at 2:30 to speak to the scheduling of the trial, subject to any further changes. Parties are strongly encouraged to discuss and agree upon possible future hearing dates. It is anticipated that one person will be able to attend to speak to the matter in order to set a future date, provided that they have agreed on or discussed dates, and have been authorized to do so. Motion denied.

Shore, J. April 1, 2020