Decision: 2022 BCSC 1198 Court: Supreme Court of British Columbia Date: July 14, 2022 Read the full decision on CanLII ↗
Counsel’s Comments
“Parental alienation is the most insidious and heart-breaking issue in all of family law litigation. That a parent would rather coach their children to sever all ties with a biological parent rather than share parenting time is cruel. In this case our client had previously successfully obtained a 50-50 shared parenting schedule with his ex-wife despite her vehement opposition at trial. Sadly, once the new shared parenting arrangement was put in place the once loving children quickly and inexplicably expressed hatred for their father and refused to attend parenting time with him. We obtained an order for our client to hire a psychologist to create an expert report under section 211 of the Family Law Act (commonly known as a 211 report) to determine what parenting time was in the children’s best interest. Unsurprisingly, the expert report concluded that the children’s mother was actively engaging in parental alienating behaviour. Our client was not only granted make-up parenting time for the time he lost, but the mother was ordered to have no in-person contact with the children while she undertook psychological counselling (at her sole cost) to address and rectify her alienating behavior. Our client’s ex-wife was ordered to pay his court costs.”
— Matthew Brandon
Legal issue
What parenting arrangement and protective measures were in the children’s best interests after shared parenting time had been disrupted.
Judicial outcome
The court made orders intended to restore and protect our client’s parenting time, including make-up time and related conditions.