Court File and Parties

COURT FILE NO.: FS-21-00026711-0000 DATE: 20220331 SUPERIOR COURT OF JUSTICE - ONTARIO

RE: Felix Youssef AND: Hailfaa Youssef

BEFORE: Papageorgiou J.

COUNSEL: Felix Youssef, Applicant did not appear Maood Tahir, for the Respondent

HEARD: March 31, 2022

Endorsement

[1] The Respondent mother (the “Mother”) brings a motion without notice for a variety of Orders as a result of her fear that the Applicant father (the “Father”) will abduct the child and remove him to Qatar.

[2] This matter has a history with respect to the child of the marriage R.S.Y., born XXX XXX, 2013 (the “Child”).

The Ontario Proceedings

[3] On November 19, 2021 the Applicant commenced proceedings pursuant to the Children’s Law Reform Act claiming that the Respondent had absconded from Qatar with the Child and that Qatar was the place of the Child’s habitual residence.

[4] The Applicant brought a without notice urgent motion seeking the return of the Child to Qatar or in the alternative that his passport be held for safe keeping and that he not be removed from Ontario. Justice Shore determined that without notice to the Mother and a proper record before the Court, she was not prepared to send the Child to Qatar. She ordered that the issue of where the Child shall reside should be addressed on notice. On an interim urgent basis she ordered that the Child should not be removed from Ontario and his passports held in trust by the Applicant’s lawyer.

[5] On December 2, 2021 Justice Hood ordered that the parties’ passports in their entirety were to be photocopied and disclosed to the other party. He ordered that disclosure and the exchange of affidavit material was to take place pursuant to a specific timetable as well as questioning with the ultimate matter of the court’s jurisdiction to hear this matter being heard at a 5 day trial commencing May 9, 2022. The passport disclosure orders were in part to assist the Court with the determination of the Child’s habitual residence.

[6] The Mother has complied with the timetable and provided her disclosure. The Father has not complied with the timetable or the orders regarding the copies of his and the Child’s passport or the obtaining of all travel documents for the child.

The Qatar Proceedings

[7] On December 21, 2021, the Father wrote requesting an extension to file his disclosure and other required materials pursuant to Justice Hood’s order. The Mother gave an extension to January 15, 2022. However, the Father still did not comply.

[8] On December 21, the Mother received a letter from a new lawyer in Qatar informing her that they are filing for divorce in Qatar and that they have reported her to Interpol for kidnapping. They also mentioned that the Child is a Spanish citizen. The letter stated as follows:

“We urge you to contact the Qatar prosecutor office to explain her action and defend herself in these criminal proceedings. We remind you that R. is a citizen of Spain as well we are presenting a request to the proper authorities in Qatar to submit a red notice through Interpol to locate and provisionally arrest Hailfaa Salman Youssef pending her extradition to Qatar.”

[9] The Mother says that that the Child has never lived in Spain and only visited twice. The Mother does not know when or how he became a Spanish citizen.

[10] On January 7, 2022 the Father’s Canadian lawyer forwarded a divorce certificate which was issued in Qatar and which the Mother was not aware of. The materials note the service address for her as the Father’s address in Qatar where she was not. He also enclosed a notice of change of representation such that the Father would be representing himself.

[11] On February 2, 2022 the Mother received a notice from the family court in Qatar informing her that the hearing date for the divorce proceeding was March 20, 2022 where the corollary issues would be decided. The application issued by the Father in Qatar stated that the issues which would be addressed were divorce, removal of the child from Qatar and delivery of his passport. It also included an actual divorce certificate which said that the Mother “who is absent from the counsel of the judiciary on 30-7-2021 in a state of impurity.”

[12] Thus far, the Mother has not received any final Order from Qatar.

The Mother’s Position in the Proceeding

[13] To be clear, everything in this section is based upon the Mother’s position and evidence.

[14] The Mother disputes the Father’s allegation that she absconded with the Child from Qatar. She and the Child are both Canadian citizens. She asserts that she has lived in Ontario for many years with the Child while the Applicant worked in Qatar and that she was a stay at home mother. She has produced report cards showing the Child attended school in Ontario for the years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. The Child is now 8 years old and she asserts that she has always been the primary caregiver.

[15] During this time, she visited the Father from time to time in Qatar. She alleges that he is verbally and otherwise abusive.

[16] She says that in January 2021 she visited Qatar with the Child with the intention of moving there although the Child was still attending school online. She says the Father was abusive, kicked her out of the house and then permitted her to return if she would sign a separation agreement.

[17] In April 2021, the Child came back to Canada with the Father and resumed schooling and completed grade two in Ontario. The Father advised the Mother that they would be moving to New Zealand and that he would be selling all their Ontario property to facilitate this.

[18] The Mother says the Father stayed in Canada until June 2021. He advised the Mother that she had to go to Turkey to fix her teeth and for beautification treatments. She complied. From that time on the Father would not allow her any parenting time. She says that during the time the Child was alone with the Father, he was disparaging the Respondent.

[19] On November 1, 2021 the Mother travelled to Qatar to finalize the Separation Agreement. The Father refused to give her parenting time unless she signed the agreement. She would not and he left. After one hour he dropped the Child at her hotel room with his passport and Qatari ID.

[20] She asked the Father to come and pick up the Child but he asked her to contact his Qatari lawyer.

[21] The Mother says the Father stopped all communication with her, she knew no one and she contacted the Canadian Consulate office who advised her that she could legally travel to Canada.

[22] And she did.

[23] The Mother says that the parties owned six properties in Ontario and now he has sold them all. She believes that he is trying to avoid the equalization and other legal aspects of the family law legislation in Ontario.

[24] She is currently living in a basement apartment near the Child’s school and supporting herself by working in a gas station as an attendant. The Father has not paid any child or spousal support.

[25] The Father’s failure to comply with Justice Hood’s order delays this matter and has resulted in a situation where jurisdictional issues may prevent the Mother from seeking support. By failing to comply with Justice Hood’s order, the Father has delayed his own proceeding. It is in the Child’s best interests that his residence be determined as soon as possible. Therefore, by delaying this matter, the Father has not acted in the Child’s best interests.

[26] The Mother can barely afford her current living situation or this proceeding, let alone having to defend a proceeding in Qatar.

[27] The Mother says that the courts in Qatar do not follow the best interests of the child test but as soon as a child is 9, they have a strong bias in favor of giving custody to a father.

Reason for the Ex Parte Motion

[28] The Mother argues that the Father appears to have abandoned the Ontario proceedings and she is scared he is attempting to obtain an ex parte order from Qatar and by using that order and the Child’s Spanish passport he may abduct the Child. As noted, he has not complied with the production of passport or any other disclosure requirement or any other aspect of Justice Hood’s Order.

[29] His previous lawyer who has gotten off the record is holding the Child’s Canadian passport.

[30] The Father knows the Child’s school and the Child’s school has advised the Mother that without a court order they could not stop the Father if he wished to take the Child from school.

[31] I am satisfied that there are grounds to believe that the Father is attempting an end run around the Ontario courts and that he may attempt to abduct the Child using another passport.

[32] As such I grant the Mother’s request.

[33] As well the Mother seeks direction on how to proceed now that it appears that the Father has abandoned these proceedings.

[34] I direct that the Mother serve the Father with this endorsement, by emailing it to his current counsel in Qatar.

[35] I am scheduling an urgent case conference on April 12 at 12:00 pm to be held on zoom where matters related to the above issues and how this matter shall proceed given the Father’s failure to comply with Justice Hood’s Order, the competing proceedings he has brought and the May 7, 2022, 5 day hearing which has been scheduled to address jurisdictional issues.

[36] I reserve the issue of costs to the case conference judge.

Papageorgiou J. Date: March 31, 2022