Enforcing a Parent/Child Relationship at All Cost?: Supervised Access Orders in the Canadian Courts

  • Kelly F
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Abstract

Supervised access has become a key component of Canadian custody and access decision making in recent years, in large part due to a shift in attitudes towards post-separation contact between non-custodial parents, typically fathers, and their children. White the sole criterion upon which an access decision can be made is the "best interests of the child," the increased emphasis on ensuring that children have "maximum contact" with each of their parents post-separation, and the particular focus on maintaining paternal contact, has meant that orders for "no access" have almost disappeared. In an effort to unpack the themes underlying supervised access decision making in Canada, this article analyzes two years of family law judgments from British Columbia and Ontario in which supervised access was ordered. It provides an overview of the types of families and factual situations that attract supervised access orders and analyzes the three themes that emerge from the cases. Le droit de visite sous supervision est devenu depuis quelques ann6es au Canada un 6l,6ment cI6 du processus de prise de decision en mati~re de garde d'enfants et de droits de visite, en grande partie en raison d'un changement d'attitude envers le contact post-s6paration entre le parent nayant pas obtenu la garde, g6n~ralement le pare, et leurs enfants. Bien que < l'int~r~t v6ritable de 'enfant >> soit le seut crit6re pouvant motiver lattribution de droits de visite. limportance accrue que rev~t la n~cessit6 que les enfants aient apr&s [a s~paration "< le maximum de communication >> avec chacun de leurs parents, et l'accent particulier mis sur le maintien du contact paternel, a pratiquement sonn6 le glas des ordonnances interdis-ant les droits de visite. Afin d'l6ucider les th6mes sous-jacents au processus de prise de d6cision en mati~re de droit de visite sous supervision au Canada, cet article analyse deux ann6es de jugements du droit de ta famille de la Colombie-Britannique et de ['Ontario dans lesquels une ordonnance de droit de visite sous supervision a 6t6 rendue. It fournit un apercu du genre de familles et des situations de fait qui motivent une ordonnance de droit de visite sous supervision et analyse les trois thames qui ressortent de ces cas.

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APA

Kelly, F. (2011). Enforcing a Parent/Child Relationship at All Cost?: Supervised Access Orders in the Canadian Courts. Osgoode Hall Law Journal, 49(2), 277–309. https://doi.org/10.60082/2817-5069.1057

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