November 19, 2019 – Maximum Contact Principle – Redux

“While the “maximum contact” principle does apply and is an important one, it is not absolute and it remains one factor in the whole of the analysis. It ought not to be treated as the governing factor. In Gordon, at para. 24, McLachlin J. noted that:

The “maximum contact” principle, as it has been called, is mandatory, but not absolute. The Act only obliges the judge to respect it to the extent that such contact is consistent with the child’s best interests; if other factors show that it would not be in the child’s best interests, the court can and should restrict contact: Young v. Young, 1993 CanLII 34 (SCC)[1993] 4 S.C.R. 3, at pp. 117-18.”

Bjornson v. Creighton, 2002 CanLII 45125 (ON CA) at 34