A new divisional court dealing with conjugal and sexual complaints is expected to be launched by the beginning of 2022 by the Court of Quebec, potentially setting the stage for a legal battle against the Quebec government.
An unusually public clash between the Quebec Justice Minister and the Chief Justice of the Court of Quebec has materialized over competing visions on how to deal with conjugal and sexual violence cases, with little signs of abating.
Quebec, once on the forefront of trans rights, is now joining the ranks of most Canadian jurisdictions after Quebec Superior Court declared unconstitutional several articles of the Civil Code of Quebec that discriminated against trans and non-binary people.
A Quebec commission of inquiry is calling for a sweeping overhaul of the provincial youth protection system, including legislative amendments, to deal with children slipping under the cracks, burnt-out staff leaving in hordes, and underfinancing, all of which should be overseen by a newly appointed provincial director.
A wealthy businessman was ordered to pay $2.4 million to his former common law-former partner as he left the relationship with a disproportionate share of the wealth accumulated by the parties’ joint efforts, held the Quebec Court of Appeal.
Canadian judges have demonstrated very little awareness over the heightened risks of domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic, a situation that should prompt judges to attend comprehensive legal training over what the United Nations has described as the “shadow pandemic,” according to human rights and legal aid experts.
A father who demanded that his 16-year old son hand in a copy of his passport as well as other personal documents learned the hard way that Charter-protected rights can trump parental authority.
A child in Quebec can legally only have two parents named in a birth certificate but that does not preclude a third person from parenting, ruled the Quebec Court of Appeal.
A mother of a three-year old child addicted to marijuana was denied shared custody after a Quebec court held that her cannabis consumption compromised her parental skills.
In the end she was done in by spite, and greed.
She is the ex-wife of a wealthy Quebec businessman who had sought to maintain an exceptionally privileged and luxurious lifestyle, and fought tooth and nail. She hired and fired more than half a dozen lawyers all the while waging a relentless, and ultimately, vain legal battle to find hidden assets ostensibly stashed away by her husband. She frittered away about $4 million in legal and expert expenses, only for the case to be heard ex parte. She did not show up at trial nor was she was she represented by a lawyer.
A government-mandated committee report that called for sweeping reforms of Quebec’s family law regime has all but been sidelined, making it the second the comprehensive report that the Quebec government has quietly shelved over the past month.
Quebec Minister of Justice Stéphanie Vallée recently testified before a parliamentary commission that the provincial government is now reviewing its position over family law reforms.
