The appellant father appealed an Ontario Superior Court order requiring the return of his 14-year-old son to Canada from Oklahoma.
The child had been living in Oklahoma with the father, and U.S. courts had previously refused the respondent mother's Hague Convention petition for the child's return, citing the child's mature objection to returning to Canada under Article 13(2).
The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal, holding that the Ontario courts should decline jurisdiction in favour of the Oklahoma courts based on principles of comity and deference to the U.S. courts' reasonable interpretation of the Hague Convention.
