“As provided in s. 17(4.1) of the Divorce Act, an order for spousal support made under the Act may be varied where there has been a “material change in circumstances”. A “material change in circumstances” is a “substantial” change. There is a wealth of jurisprudence respecting this concept, which need not be reviewed here in detail: it is sufficient to note that a change must be substantial before the court will vary the order.
The phrase “catastrophic change in circumstances” is not a term of art under the Divorce Act and is not a settled concept in Canadian family law. In Bradley v. Bradley, [1997] OJ No 2349, 1997 CanLII 15689 (ON SC), Mazza J. finds (at para. 13):
By the use of the phrase “catastrophic change”, the parties have agreed that it is not enough for the change to be substantial, a term that would define “material” but it must be “disastrous” or “devastating”, terms that would clearly describe “catastrophic”: Concise Oxford Dictionary, 9th ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995). The question to be determined is whether or not the evidence supports the latter definition.
In Kainz v. Potter (2006), 2006 CanLII 20532 (ON SC), 33 RFL (6th) 62 (Ont. SCJ), para. 83, Linhares de Sousa J. found as follows:
With respect to whether this would constitute a “catastrophic change in circumstances”, the parties have not defined this phrase in their Separation Agreement. One is therefore left to be guided by how the jurisprudence has defined that phrase. There is no question that the threshold is high. The cases use such words as “drastic”, “dramatic”, “radical”, and “gross” (see Pelech v. Pelech, 1987 CanLII 57 (SCC), [1987] 1 SCR 801; Bradley v. Bradley, [1997] OJ No 2349, 1997 CanLII 15689 (ON SC); and Ouellette v. Ouellette, [1994] NWTJ No. 47).
In the recent case of Roberts v. D’Amico, 2021 ONSC 707, Kimmel J. found that the effects of measures taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic did constitute a “catastrophic change in circumstances” for the payor husband, whose employment at Air Canada was affected profoundly by the reduction in air travel during the pandemic.”
This article provides some helpful insights into urgent legal situations. I’m curious, how quickly can a court typically issue an Emergency Custody Order in Canada
once an application is submitted? Are there specific circumstances that make the process faster or slower? Understanding this timeline is crucial for families facing immediate concerns. Thanks for shedding light on such an important and sensitive topic!