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When families break down, the question of "who gets the dog" is often of fundamental importance to the parties. However, Canadian courts have historically regarded companion animals as mere property and ignored the emotional bonds between family members and their companion animals. More recently, courts have taken a number of approaches, ranging from a traditional property analysis, to one that considers the animal's best interests. Given these developments, the author believes the time is ripe for the law to adopt a more consistent and compassionate approach to the question of companion animal ownership--one that reflects modern-day understandings of the relationships between humans and nonhuman companion animals. In this article, the author contends that Canadian courts should dispense with the traditional property analysis to determining ownership of a companion animal, where purchaser equals owner regardless of the dynamics in the home, and instead adopt a relational approach, which looks to the roles and responsibilities of the parties in relation to their animal, regardless of legal ownership or title. To explain the property-based approach, the author considers Henderson v Henderson and Ireland v Ireland. These decisions illustrate how the traditional approach to determining companion animal ownership ignores the meaningful relationships between humans and their companions by focusing solely on the question of legal title. To illustrate an alternative approach, the author relies on Rogers v Rogers, which considered the interests of the dog in question. The author then considers the recent appellate decision Baker v Harmina, which set out a more nuanced analysis, and suggests that the relational approach to determining companion animal ownership may be gaining momentum in Canadian courts. This approach, seemingly at play in both the majority and dissenting reasons in Baker v Harmina, explores the relationship between the parties and the animal to determine "who gets the dog", rather than only considering who purchased the animal. The author concludes by noting that while there is no easy answer to who gets the dog in family disputes, the relational approach--similar to the analysis that already underlies much of family law-- provides the best means for court decisions to reflect the lived realities of the parties with respect to companion animals. The author suggests that the relational approach, in addition to providing some consistency in an otherwise unpredictable area of law, will help alleviate some of the perceived injustices that surround treating companion animals as mere property by ensuring that relationships between human parties and their companion animals are able to continue beyond family breakdown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada's Divorce Act relies heavily on the concepts of custody and access to govern post-separation parenting, concepts that have proprietary connotations with parental winners and losers. The 1985 A ct fails to adequately reflect current social values, family arrangements or social science research, and it does not mention either the views of the child or domestic violence. The author responds to the Act's shortcomings by proposing comprehensive reform to its post-separation parenting provisions. Building on provincial and international reforms, the author recommends a principled articulation of the best interests of the child that would provide judges, family lawyers, mediators and parents with the guidance needed to develop appropriate parenting plans. This principled articulation would support co-parenting, without establishing a presumption of equal parenting time. The author's approach goes beyond prior parliamentary attempts to enact appropriate legislation by balancing the importance of maintaining parent-child relationships with domestic violence concerns. Further, the author advocates for the inclusion of relocation provisions, which require notice of planned relocation and structured decision making about whether relocation is in the best interests of the child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States and Canada have been experiencing major changes in family formation and dissolution over the past decades. Within this context, the French- Canadian Province of Quebec has consistently been at the forefront-in 2011, for example, 37.8 per cent of Quebec couples were cohabitants and 63 per cent of births were from nonmarried parents. Is this difference strictly due to Quebec's distinct social and cultural characteristics or can the Quebec experience be seen as a predictor of things to come for the rest of Canada and the United States? This article discusses the causes of these new behaviors in Quebec, presents changes in the Canadian legal system to facilitate less adversarial procedures, and reports the results of a Quebec longitudinal study exploring the relationship between child adjustment and custody arrangements. The quality of the psychological and relational environment in which the child lives is shown to be more important than the type of family structure and custody arrangement. Keypoints for the Family Court Community Family structure changes in Quebec and Canada, Divorce less adversarial dispute resolution options, Contribution of child custody arrangement to postseparation child well-being, Moderating factors of child well-being in separated divorced families, Emotional well-being, parenting practices, and household income of mothers with joint versus sole custody [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines Canadian court cases from 1989-2008 which focuses on claims of alienation of children due to parental separation. One of the aspects of the maximum contact principle in Canada's Divorce Act is the need for courts to make sure there is much contact with every parent, considering the best interests of the child. The author emphasizes the need for the justice system to respond immediately to cases where a child refuses to contact a parent. There has been a growth in the number of cases which address alienation issues in the country. The article discusses the role of mental health specialists in handling alienation cases.

The article examines the Canadian Supreme Court's judgement on the Rick v. Brandsema case involving a separation agreement dividing family assets. Particular focus is given to facts surrounding the case. Also included are information on the court's judgment in Miglin v. Miglin, as well as its relation to the doctrine of unconscionability. It also discusses the award of damages made on setting aside the parties' agreement.

The article presents a Canadian study that deals with the perceptions and experiences of young adults with child lawyers. It focuses on young adults who had legal representation in their parents' separation or divorce dispute and their experiences in the court process. The study explores the participants' thoughts and feelings and highlights the questions about the tension between representing children in family law disputes.

This research examines the diversification and changes in the Canadian family form over the past 25 years. While the husband-wife family has declined over this time period, it still remains the dominant family form. Statistics Canada census statistics allows for the examination of new family forms since 1981, as the common-law partnership and the now married have been distinguished within the husband-wife family category. With the introduction of the 1968 and 1985 Divorce Acts, separation became a major ground for divorce in Canada. Marital breakdown should be measured by the incidence of both divorce and separation. The popularity of cohabitation further clouds the measuring of total partnership breakdown since separation of cohabiting partners is not recorded. This research focuses on the change in marital separation and the increase in cohabitation since 1981. Marital separation has declined in its contribution to total marital dissolution since 1985. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If allegations of sexual abuse of a child are made after parents separate, the challenges of resolving custody and visitation issues are greatly increased, with the abuse allegations overshadowing other considerations. These are high conflict cases, and settlement may be very difficult (or inappropriate) to arrange. The involvement of a number of agencies and professionals, with overlapping responsibilities and potentially conflicting opinions, may complicate the resolution of these cases. A significant proportion of allegations of child abuse made in the context of parental separation are true, but this is a context with a relatively high rate of unfounded allegations. While some cases of untrue allegations are due to fabrication, more commonly unfounded allegations are made in good faith. Preexisting distrust or hostility may result in misunderstandings and unfounded allegations, especially in cases where the children involved are young and the allegations are reported through a parent. Some cases of unfounded allegations may be the product of the emotional disturbance of the accusing parent. This paper discusses how parental separation affects the making of child sexual abuse allegations, with particular emphasis on how separation may contribute to unfounded allegations. Recent research is reviewed, and national data from Canada on allegations of abuse and neglect when parents have separated is presented. Legal issues that arise in these cases are discussed in the context of American and Canadian case law. The authors discuss factors that can help distinguish founded from unfounded cases. The paper concludes by offering some practical advice about the handling of this type of case by mental health professional, judges, and lawyers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an alternate view of the Canadian Supreme Court case of Nova Scotia v. Walsh. The court held that unmarried coinhabitants were not discriminated against by exclusion from the matrimonial property legislation of the state. The case brought about the question of freedom, for it gave freedom to some and denied others. The case was about a couple named Walsh and Bona, who lived together for several years but never married. When their relationship ended, the property were not divided like a marriage, which was unacceptable to Walsh, who wanted to be treated like married person.

There is controversy in Canada about the use of assessments by mental health professionals to assist in the resolution of postseparation disputes between parents about their children. Although the principles developed by the Supreme Court of Canada to govern the admission of expert evidence in criminal law cases provides guidance for judges In family law cases, in deciding whether to order an assessment or admit expert evidence, family law judges must also take account of the child-related context. Mental health professionals can provide valuable information that would otherwise be unavailable when making prospective decisions about children. Court-appointed assessors also have a significant institutional role in the family law cases that has no equivalent in the criminal law context. Assessors are important not only for the relatively rare cases that go to trial, but they also play a central role in helping to resolve the much larger number of cases that are settled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the legal framework and the judicial interpretation on matters of spousal support in Canada. The court case Boston v. Boston provided much needed guidance on the issue of "double dipping." Prior to Boston, the lower courts were divided on the issue of whether a pension should be counted as both a capital asset upon equalization and a source of income for the calculation of spousal support. At one end of the spectrum were the earlier cases where courts were reluctant to look to pension income as a basis for support if the pension had been previously equalized. These decisions held that spousal support must end at retirement when the pension becomes the payer's only source of income. At the other end were the more recent cases that refused to preclude pension income as a basis for spousal support payments in spite of the fact that the pension (as a capital asset) formed part of the equalization payment. However, when Boston is considered in light of the voluminous sociological data of women's post-divorce descent into poverty, it becomes apparent that the decision gives little credence to the systemic hardship women experience upon marriage breakdown.

The article discusses the legal stipulations and judicial pronouncements aimed at ensuring fairness on family breakdown and discusses the legal framework for a diversity of marriage forms. The article discusses the special rights, duties, privileges, and incapacities that flow from the status of marriage. Traditionally, marriage and only marriage conferred spousal status and the incidents of marriage. Today, in view of the changing lifestyles, and social practices and trends, marriage is no longer a prerequisite to the incidents of marriage and the modification of the incidents of marriage - or cohabitation - is statutorily endorsed. Most of Canada's jurisprudence on domestic contracts deals with challenges to spousal support provisions in separation agreements. The Supreme Court of Canada most recently dealt with this issue in the court case Miglin v. Miglin. Consistent with its pattern of deference to separation agreements, the Court ruled that the release of spousal support in the parties' separation agreement should be enforced and the wife's claim for support dismissed.

As part of a Canadian best practices evaluation of parent education for divorcing parents, this study assessed program effects on postseparation parenting. Statistically significant changes from pretest to 4 to 6 month follow-up were evident on all scales related to conflict between former partners, whereas changes related to positive and cooperative parenting were less conclusive. All parents experienced a reduction in conflict that places children in the middle of the conflict by the follow-up stage. Low-moderate-conflict parents experienced more increases in adaptive parenting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Studies in Population is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Sociology is the property of Canadian Journal of Sociology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Past research on marital dissolution has shown that young age of women at marriage appears to be one of the most significant predictors of their later chances of experiencing a separation, even when controlling for various covariates. Because of the strong interrelations between women's age at marriage and childbearing patterns, it remains difficult to disentangle the net effect of each of these factors. Using proportional hazards models with time-varying covariates on recent Canadian data, this research reveals that the timing of marriage still exerts a strong net [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]