“Society counsel provided me in advance with Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Toronto v. R.M., 2017 ONCJ 784, a case that explores the legal test to change temporary Orders. It is not contested that the COVID-19 closure of the CAS facility is a change in circumstance sufficient to vary the temporary Order of February 11, 2020.
COVID-19 has had the unprecedented effect of cancelling in-person access at Society facilities across Ontario. In Children’s Aid Society of Toronto v. S.S., 2020 ONCJ 170 the court took judicial notice of the fact that during the pandemic, Societies cannot provide the level of supervision that it might otherwise have been able to provide, and that many staff are working remotely.
Nonetheless, Societies are being ordered to facilitate access wherever possible and to find new ways of delivering services. In C.A.S. v. J.N., A.F. and M.S., 2020 CarswellOnt 6741 Justice Piccoli summarizes the caselaw to date and confirms that “since COVID-19, the court has found that there is no presumptive authority extended to the Society to suspend in-person access to parents without formulating some alternative measures. See: DCAS v. Quinn, 2020 ONSC 1761; and Children’s Aid Society of Toronto v. T.F., 2020 ONCJ 169.””