Revisions to Child Custody Laws & How They Affect You
On March 1, 2021, crucial amendments to Canada’s Divorce Act will go into effect. These changes aim to increase the responsiveness of federal laws based on the needs of Canadian families. Canada’s Divorce Act is meant for married couples who are separating and/or would like to get divorced. Later this year, the act (which hasn’t been updated for over 20 years) is going through major reform in 2 key areas.
Promoting the Child’s Best Interests In family law cases, a child’s best interest is always the top priority. The Divorce Act reform will increase promotion of this through a few measures:
1. Criteria The amendment has created a list of factors a court must consider when determining which actions are in a child’s best interests. While the main considerations are a child’s psychological, emotional, and physical well-being, a court should also consider the child’s: • relationship with their parents, grandparents, and other important adults; • heritage and upbringing; and • preference. This criterion helps courts create an ideal arrangement for each family’s needs.
2. Terminology When constructing parenting arrangements, the courts will now use new, child-focused terminology. For example, rather than utilizing terms such as ‘custody’ and ‘access,’ the amendment asks the court to use the term ‘parenting orders’. A parenting order explains each party’s responsibilities to their child as well as the time they will spend with them. The new wording connotes a more neutral tone and places an emphasis on the care of the child rather than on who has most of the custody and visitation time.
3. Increased Awareness of Family Violence Before the creation of these revisions to the Divorce Act, the word violence was not mentioned in the Divorce Act. Violence of this nature can have a detrimental impact on a child’s well-being and is conduct that is: • violent; • threatening; • controlling; and/or • fear-inducing. With these new revisions, a court will need to review and assess the existence and/ or severity of violence in the home and how it could affect the parenting capabilities of each party.
4. Reducing Poverty If parents and children do not get the financial support they need after the parents go through a separation or divorce, the risk of living in poverty increases. The Divorce Act tackles this issue by: • Providing an increase in devices to help enforce child support. For example, in certain situations, the Canadian government may release tax information to help with child support arrangements.
