“Okmyansky is clear and unequivocal authority that an Ontario court does not have jurisdiction to hear and determine a corollary relief proceeding under the Divorce Act following a valid foreign divorce. Simmons J.A. held, at para. 38, that without a divorce granted in Canada, a support order could not properly be viewed as “corollary relief.”
Various superior court cases have followed Okmyansky in the last ten years. Thus the court in Stefanou v. Stefanou, 2012 ONSC 7265 (CanLII), 47 R.F.L. (7th) 385, held, at para. 170, that “[i]f the divorce is not granted pursuant to the Divorce Act, then there is no divorce to which corollary relief may be incidental.” The British Columbia Court of Appeal came to the same conclusion in L.R.V. v. A.A.V., 2006 BCCA 63 (CanLII), 52 B.C.L.R. (4th) 112, holding that the Supreme Court of British Columbia has no jurisdiction under the Divorce Act to grant corollary relief founded upon a foreign divorce.
In my view, the trial judge erred in law when he attempted to distinguish this case from Okmyansky. That case was binding authority, and nothing in the unique circumstances of this case serves to confer jurisdiction where the statute does not provide jurisdiction. Simply put, there is no jurisdiction for an Ontario court to grant corollary relief under the Divorce Act after a foreign court has validly issued a divorce.”