Bookman Law at the Supreme Court of Canada
The SUPREME COURT OF CANADA has released its long awaited decision on this Hague Convention appeal. Counsel at BOOKMAN LAW are pleased with the decision as it conforms Canadian law to evolving international jurisprudence while at the same time validates and confirms that the decisions of the Applications Judge and the Ontario Court of Appeal were correct. By adopting the “hybrid approach”, the Supreme Court has redefined how Canadian courts will determine the habitual residence of children under the Hague Convention. This approach will permit courts to consider a myriad of factors rather than simply ‘shared parental intent’ as has been the test to date.
The Supreme Court provided a new framework to analyse habitual residence which is fact driven and needs to be specifically interpreted in each individual case. It is now in the hands of the lower courts across Canada to define exactly how this hybrid approach is going to be applied.
The Supreme Court decision can be found by following this link: https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/17064/index.do
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