February 3, 2023 – What To Do When A Child Won’t Go?

“At para. 30 of Godard, the Court of Appeal asked, what does the mother do when the child does not want to go to school or to the dentist? What are the mother’s mechanisms to get the child to go? Does the child have an allowance? Does she have a hockey tournament that maybe she is not allowed to attend if she does not go to see dad before? Are there things that the mother could do to force the child to go, short of the police attending at her house and physically removing the child?

Actively promoting and facilitating compliance with a custody and access order requires the parent to take concrete measures to apply normal parental authority to have the child comply, including addressing the following: (i) Did they engage in a discussion with the child to determine why the child is refusing to go? (ii) Did they communicate with the other parent or other people involved with the family about the difficulties and how to resolve them? (iii) Did they offer the child an incentive to comply with the order? (iv) Did they articulate any clear disciplinary measures should the child continue to refuse to comply with the order?: see Smart v. Belland, 2021 ONSC 1124 at para. 10.

Parents are not required to do the impossible in order to avoid a contempt finding. They are however required to do all that they reasonably can: see Godard, at para. 29.”

            McCarthy v. Murray, 2022 ONSC 855 (CanLII) at 33-35