Court File and Parties

Court File No.: FC-23-841 Date: 2025-09-19 Superior Court of Justice – Ontario

Re: Olga Oleinikova, Applicant -and- Rani Al-Karmi, Respondent

Counsel: Dennis Molnar, appearing for the Applicant Kevin Kavanagh, appearing for the Respondent

Heard: September 4, 2025

Reasons for Decision

Introduction

[1] On December 18, 2024, I ordered a focused trial on the sole issue of the parties' date of separation for the purpose of the Family Law Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. F.3 ("Family Law Act"). Both parties were allowed to present their evidence in chief by way of affidavits, with a right of cross-examination viva voce to test credibility. In addition to her own affidavits, the wife filed affidavits from two neighbours, a co-worker, and the children's piano teacher. In addition to his own affidavit, the husband filed an affidavit sworn by his father. Only three witnesses were cross-examined on their affidavits; the two parties themselves and the husband's father.

[2] Based on all the evidence presented to the Court, and for the reasons set out below, I find that the parties separated on October 5, 2022, as alleged by the wife, and not on June 7, 2020, as alleged by the husband.

The Parties' Position

[3] The husband takes the position that the parties separated on June 7, 2020, although they agreed to continue to reside together under the same roof for the sake of the children. He states that on that day, the wife discovered that he was having an affair with his current partner, Ms. Colson, and she made it clear to him that from there on, they were no longer husband and wife.

[4] The husband explains that the parties had been unhappy in their marriage for a long time, but they did not want their children to have to go through a family breakup. He relies on two emails sent to him by the wife on June 7 and August 15, 2020, which according to him constituted the terms pursuant to which they agreed to continue to cohabit under the same roof following their separation. According to the husband, they agreed to continue to pretend to the world that they were husband and wife for the sake of their (then) young children for a period of at least three years, following which either of them would be able to seek a divorce.

[5] The wife states that the parties' marriage endured various conflicts over the years, largely due to the mistrust between them after the husband had an affair in 1999. She explained that there were various times at which the parties came very close to a separation, and that the events of the summer of 2020 were one of those times. However, she says that all the conflicts between the parties prior to October 5, 2022, including the one which took place in the summer of 2020, died down organically as she ultimately resolved to remain in the marriage. She takes the position that the marriage came to an end on October 5, 2022, when she discovered that the husband had been living a double life with Ms. Colson, with whom (she found out on that day) he owned a house and had a three-year-old son.

[6] The wife is of the view that the husband's position on their date of separation is simply an attempt by him to reduce the amount of the equalization payment that he will owe to her, considering the increase in the value of his business during those two years, and the significant increase post-Covid in the value of the home he purchased with Ms. Colson in August 2021, without her knowledge.

The Applicable Legal Principles

[7] The leading decision on the legal issue before me is the Court of Appeal's recent decision in Kassabian v. Marcarian, 2025 ONCA 239, penned by Madsen JA. The applicable legal principles are set out at paras. 15 to 35 and while I will not reproduce them here, I have thoroughly considered them to come to my conclusion.

Analysis

[8] The parties began living together in 1992 and were married on July 1, 1995, while they were still living in Russia. After a brief stay in Jordan, the parties moved to Canada in 2002. They have four children together who are currently 25, 24, 18 and 15. The husband is a doctor who, since on or about 2007, exercises his profession through various medical clinics and corporations including in Ottawa, the Montfort Hospital, and in Pembroke. Throughout the marriage, the wife was rarely employed outside of the home. Her primary role was to care for the children and the household, and to support the husband's career by assuming the bookkeeping and many other responsibilities in relation to his various clinics and corporations.

[9] I accept the wife's evidence that the parties' marriage endured various conflicts over the years, including as a result of an affair the husband had in 1999. She explained that there were various times during their marriage that the parties were close to a separation. Prior to October 2022, the husband had told the wife that he needed to divide his life between their residence and being on call at the Pembroke Hospital, which required him to spend half of his time in Pembroke. For a few years prior to October 2022, the husband was generally away from the home several days each week, including overnight.

[10] The wife testified that in the summer of 2020, evidence that the husband was lying to her again began to resurface. For instance, she found out the husband had a car registered under his name, but which was not available at home nor to any family members. Soon after, receipts for a storage rental unit came across her desk. She says that she approached the husband for an explanation, but he dismissed her and told her that it was none of her business. This led to significant conflict. After some time, the husband concocted a story that he purchased the vehicle for their friend Oscar who claimed bankruptcy during his separation and could not buy a car.

[11] At that time, the wife decided that she had had enough with her husband's lack of transparency and wanted to separate. On June 7, 2020, she sent the husband the following email (reproduced here integrally, including spaces and parts left blank):

Agreement.

This is the separation agreement between Rani Al Karmi and Olga Oleinikova made on June 07, 2020 and valid till June 07. 2025. According to it both sides agree:

1. Family life turned to the separation agreement.

2. Rani is following week 1 week 2 schedule lo spend time with kids.

3. While at home Rani agrees to make it quality time. such as activities, studies, tutoring.

4. All business related in the house has in to be decided together.

5. While at home repairs and projects to be done together.

6. All activities outside/inside the house (invites/ celebrations friends or family ) are not attended together.

7. House expense is divided as follows:

8. Rani or Olga has no obligations in front of the other except mentioned in this agreement.

9. Olga is eligible for free time on the weekends while Rani is in the house.

10. Olga is allowed to visit her parents every 2-3 years with any or all kids.

11. Both sides agree to treat each other with respect.

This agreement is deemed invalid as soon as one of the sides breaks any of the statements and divorce is filed immediately.

Signed by: Rani Al Karmi

Olga Olinikova

[12] The wife's evidence, which I accept, is that the husband did not respond to this initial email and refused to discuss the terms of a potential separation, set as he was to keep the family together. On or about August 15, 2020, she sent him a subsequent email in which she attached a one-page document signed by her and reproducing the exact same terms then the ones in the June 7, 2020, email, with the exception that the duration of the agreement was reduced from five years to three years. She explained that the husband refused to discuss these terms, dismissed it entirely and never signed it.

[13] The wife's evidence was that the husband's story about the vehicle and the storage unit did not make any sense to her, and she had a feeling he was hiding something but had no actual evidence of any affair by the husband at that time. The situation was very stressful to her and so detrimental to her mental health that she was ready to walk away. However, she did not. She explained that at the time, she had to decide whether she would end the marriage or just continue with it without getting the answers and the transparency that she was hoping for. Ultimately, she decided to put the argument behind and to stay in the relationship. According to her, as was the case after many arguments the parties had had in the past, life eventually resumed normally and organically, and the parties continued their lives as usual.

[14] The wife's evidence is that on Wednesday, October 5, 2022, during one of the days when the husband was allegedly "on call" in Pembroke, she discovered his car parked at 581 Rowers Way, in Ottawa. She immediately confronted him outside of the property demanding that he come down to the parking lot to explain what he was doing there, which he did. According to the wife, the husband then admitted, for the first time, that he had been having an affair for many years, leading a second life with a second family, and that he had a three-year-old child with his other partner.

[15] The wife states that this was a complete shock for her, one that shook her entire world to the core. On that day, she told the husband to get out of the house and that their marriage was over. The husband left the matrimonial home on that day, and except on a few occasions – and against the wife's objections – he did not reside in their joint home. He moved in with Ms. Colson full-time, in the house that they had purchased together (unbeknownst to her) in August 2021.

[16] The husband states that life did not resume as normal following their fall-out in the summer of 2020. According to him, life resumed as per their agreement. He states that he did not return to the marriage, rather, he held up his commitments and the terms of the parties' agreement, as laid out in the wife's emails for June and August 2020. The entire point of that agreement, according to him, was to maintain the status quo for the sake of the children and to pretend to them and to the world that they remained a family.

[17] There are many reasons why the husband's evidence supporting his position is simply not credible. While the husband's father was clearly aware, as early as 2019, that his son was living a double life and had a son with another woman, it is clear that the wife did not, although she suspected that her husband might be having an affair. The evidence as whole makes it crystal clear that on October 5, 2022, when the wife confronted the husband outside of the home he owned with Ms. Colson, something broke irrevocably, and nothing was ever the same.

[18] After the events of the summer of 2020, the parties clearly continued to live as a married couple and to hold themselves out to each other, their children, their family, and their friends as a married couple. The evidence provided by the wife contains countless examples of events that the parties attended together between June 2020 and October 2022. This includes various gatherings with neighbours, friends, and family, and a trip to Toronto in August 2022 to move their daughter to university. For the husband's 50th birthday on October 14, 2020 (in the early days of the COVID pandemic), the wife and the children prepared a video of birthday wishes from family and friends locally and abroad and arranged for a virtual birthday party for him, as an in-person gathering was not permitted at the time.

[19] This is clearly contrary to the terms of the parties' "alleged agreement" (as per para. 6 of the June 7, 2020, email) that all activities outside or inside the house (invites/celebrations friends or family) would not be attended together. Whereas the parties attended numerous events together after the summer of 2020, they no longer did after the events of October 5, 2022.

[20] Financially and business-wise, the parties continued after June 2020 to live the same way as they had always done before. On their 2020 and 2021 Income Tax Returns, they indicated that they were married, whereas starting in 2022, they indicated that they were separated. In 2020 until October 5, 2022, the parties continued to proceed with family business and obligations as they had always done, with the husband relying significantly on the wife to take care of various business and financial affairs on his behalf. The wife continued to take care of many aspects of the husband's medical businesses (such as bookkeeping, his 2020 Weight Watchers' program, dealing with the accountant and corporate tenants). In the fall of 2021, the parties arranged for important landscaping work to be completed on their house in the summer of 2022. In July of 2022, they agreed to do work on the windows of their home and started to engage with suppliers. In contrast, after October 2022 the wife completely ceased working in the husband's businesses, and totally dissociated herself from his medical clinics and financial affairs.

[21] Between 2020 and until October 5, 2022, the husband's parents continued to travel from Jordan to Canada to spend time with the parties (and their other children who live in Canada), spending months at a time in the parties' home and being cared for by the wife. Following the events of October 5, 2022, the husband's parents left the matrimonial home and never returned. I accept the wife's evidence that, had the parties been separated before October 5, 2022, she would not have continued to care for his parents because she would no longer have considered it her responsibility to do so as a wife.

[22] There is no evidence whatsoever of either party consulting lawyers following their alleged separation in June 2020. However, the wife consulted a lawyer following the events of October 5, 2022, and in early 2023 started this litigation. Additionally, the wife provided documentary evidence confirming that she sought the assistance of various professionals following the events of October 5, 2022, to get the support she needed to get through the breakdown of her marriage. In a text message to her supervisor on October 6, 2022, the wife asked for a day off and explained to her that her marriage had "just crumbled yesterday".

[23] It is clear from the evidence that the husband, following the events of October 5, 2022, still wanted the parties to stay together and was hoping that the wife would accept and come to terms with his wish to maintain both of his marital relationships. After some time, he demanded to stay overnight in the matrimonial home and he came and went as he pleased without a clear schedule, citing his joint ownership of the home. When the wife rejected his efforts to reconcile and, in April 2023, called the police when he attended the home, the husband gave the wife a traditional Islamic oral divorce in front of the police officer. Immediately thereafter, he took retributive actions against the wife to punish her for her decision to permanently separate from him. For instance, he closed the home's utility accounts without notice to her; he closed the parties' joint bank account, leaving the wife and the children with no money to live on; cancelled the wife's car insurance and the property insurance on the home. None of these actions were ever taken after the alleged June 7, 2020, separation.

[24] In Kassabian, the Court explained that the "valuation date" requires not just that the parties live "separate and apart" as understood under the Divorce Act, but additionally, that there be no reasonable prospect of resuming cohabitation. Determining when there is no reasonable prospect of resuming cohabitation requires a careful and objective weighing of a range of factors, including the intentions of the parties as demonstrated by their statements and actions. The central issue is "whether a reasonable person, knowing all the circumstances, would reasonably believe that the parties had a prospect of resuming cohabitation" (at paras. 16 and 17).

[25] The husband's own evidence supports the conclusion that the wife was not aware, until October 5, 2022, that he was deeply involved with another woman with whom he lived half of the time and had another child. The evidence as a whole makes it abundantly clear that he lived a double life which he kept secret from his wife. At para. 6 of his affidavit, he says:

When I decided to embark on a relationship with Ms. Colson, I was resolved to continue with my marriage to the Applicant. I had deep concerns about the repercussions to the children if we divorced. I also wanted to ensure that the Applicant was not abandoned, as this was part of my duty in having married her.

[26] Even if I were to accept, as alleged by the husband, that from his perspective the marriage was at an end beginning on June 7, 2020, and that he was simply complying with the terms of the parties' alleged agreement, as stated in Chan v. Chan, 2013 ONSC 7465, a spouse cannot separate in secret. Their intentions must be made clear and unequivocal. Clearly, the wife believed that she was still married to, and in an exclusive marital relationship with, her husband until she discovered on October 5, 2022, that he was living a double life with another woman, with whom he owned a house and raised a child. Visibly, she was not prepared to accept that state of affairs. Unmistakably, this caused the irrevocable termination of the parties' marriage.

Order

[27] It is hereby declared that the parties separated on October 5, 2022, which is the valuation date within the meaning of the Family Law Act.

Costs

[28] The wife is the successful party in this focused hearing, and she is presumed entitled to her costs. If the parties are unable to settle this issue, I will accept brief written submissions not exceeding three (3) pages, double-spaced, plus relevant offers to settle and a Bill of Costs, in accordance with the following timelines:

1. The wife to serve and file by October 3, 2025;
2. The husband to serve and file by October 17, 2025;
3. The wife's brief reply, if needed, to be served and filed by October 24, 2025.

Justice J. Audet

Date: September 19, 2025