“Clearly the FLR contemplate that dealing with family law cases justly is not a passive affair where the court simply reacts to motions brought by the parties. From the beginning of a case until its conclusion, the court must play a dynamic and independent role in managing cases to resolution. It must do so in order to ensure that it does justice to the parties and their children. One key venue in which the court does so is in conferences.
The court is required to assume this active case management role for a variety of reasons. It attempts to protect the parties from the costs and ravages of unnecessary and disproportionate litigation. It endeavors to protect the parties’ children, as much as possible, from the effects of their parents’ conflict. Further the court must protect its own precious resources from being wasted on bootless litigation. As the Ontario Court of Appeal recently stated in Beaver v. Hill, 2018 ONCA 840 (O.C.A.), in the context of a family law case, proportionality is a core principle that governs the conduct of proceedings generally.”