“Providing full financial disclosure is the most basic obligation in family law. In Burke v. Poitras, 2018 ONCA 1025 (CanLII) at para 11-12 the court addressed this obligation:
11 It is well-established that the most basic obligation in family law is the parties’ duty to disclose financial information and that this requirement is immediate, automatic, and ongoing. As a result, it should not require a court order to enforce: see Roberts v. Roberts, 2015 ONCA 450 (CanLII), 65 R.F.L. (7th) 6, at paras. 11-14. As this court warned in Manchanda v. Thethi, 2016 ONCA 909 (CanLII), 84 R.F.L. (7th) 374, at para. 13: “Those who choose not to disclose financial information or to ignore court orders will be at risk of losing their standing in the proceedings as their claims or answers to claims may be struck.”
12 This is because, as this court recognized in Roberts, at para. 12, breach of the disclosure obligation causes real harm:
Failure to abide by this fundamental principle impedes the progress of the action, causes delay and generally acts to the disadvantage of the opposite party. It also impacts the administration of justice. Unnecessary judicial time is spent and the final adjudication is stalled.
[Emphasis added.]
As stated in Burke v. Poitras at para. 7, an order striking a pleading can be made at any time in the proceeding to promote the overarching purpose of the Family Law Rules:
7 The express purpose of the Family Law Rules is to ensure fairness, save time and expense, and give appropriate resources to the case (while allocating resources to other cases), in order to manage the case, control the process, ensure timelines are kept, and orders are enforced. As clearly stipulated in subrules 1.(7.1), (8) and (8.1), an order, including an order to strike pleadings, can be made at any time in the process, including the settlement conference, to promote these overarching purposes. In this way, any order that promotes the overall objectives of the rules may be made at any time, including at a settlement conference.”