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.
In a ruling that underscores the need for legislators to pay heed to societal changes, the Quebec Court of Appeal confirmed the “sharp” distinction between who is a legal parent by virtue of filiation and who may exercise parental authority, reasserts that there is “plenty of space in Quebec law” for a genetic father to be active in the life of a child without legally deemed to be a parent, and seems to indicate that an agreement signed by three individuals over parenthood may not necessarily be binding, according to family law experts.