Month: October 2024

“The following excerpts from Steps to Justice: Your Guide to Law in Ontario provides a useful overview of the Parenting Coordination process:

Parenting coordination is an alternative dispute resolution, also called family dispute resolution process. Parents can meet with a parenting coordinator for help with following the parts of their court order, family arbitration award, or separation agreement that are about parenting.

     …

A parenting coordinator is a person who helps parents resolve day-to-day conflicts about their parenting arrangements or parenting orders.

A parenting coordinator doesn’t decide major things like decision-making responsibility or parenting time. These used to be called custody and access. But a parenting coordinator can decide minor issues like:

• • • • • • • small changes to a parenting access plan such as vacations and holidays
            • scheduling activities and arranging for pick up and drop off to activities like ballet, hockey, or tutoring
            • children’s travel and passport arrangements
            • how your children’s clothing and school items are moved between your and your partner’s homes

A parenting coordinator helps you speak with each other to try and agree on your parenting issues. If you can’t agree, they can decide for you. Their decision is based on information they get from the parents, professionals such as doctors, teachers, counsellors, etc., and, if needed, your child.

The process is similar to mediation-arbitration. But the parenting coordinator cannot make major decisions. Their job is to help you follow the parts of your court order, family arbitration award, or separation agreement that are about parenting.

Parenting coordinators are trained to:

• • • • • • •    understand the needs of children
            •    help each parent discuss their parenting issues
            •    help parents to manage and keep children out of conflicts

…

Some of the reasons to use parenting coordination are:

• • • • • • • You get professional help that you may need even after you have a court order, family arbitration award, or separation agreement on parenting issues. Children’s needs and issues often change as they get older. A parenting coordinator can help parents who find it hard to communicate with each other and want to set up a process for how they will resolve future issues.
            • It can be faster than going to court once you have agreed on all of the process details and signed a parenting coordination agreement.
            • It can be cheaper than going to court to resolve minor parenting issues.

Community Legal Education Ontario, “What is Parenting Coordination?” (1 March, 2021),

online: https://stepstojustice.ca/questions/family-law/what-parenting-coordination/?gclid=.”

S-L.T. v. M.L., 2023 ONSC 5551 (CanLII) at 15

“Rule 2.1 of the Rules of Civil Procedure empowers a court, on its own initiative, or on motion by any party to a proceeding, to stay or dismiss a proceeding if the proceeding appears on its face to be frivolous or vexatious or otherwise an abuse of the process of the court.

A proceeding includes an appeal. As this court noted in Simpson v. The Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario, 2016 ONCA 806, 5 C.P.C. (8^th) 280, at para. 43, “Rule 2.1 is meant to provide a streamlined procedure for disposing of proceedings and motions that on their face are frivolous, vexatious or otherwise an abuse of process.”

…

To permit the appellant to continue with her appeals would allow her to ignore the consequences of her breaches of numerous court orders, endlessly re-litigate issues, and continue to abuse the process of the court. It would also be grossly unfair to the respondent and their child, both of whom are entitled to finality. As this court stated in Simpson , at para. 41: “Everyone is entitled to their day in court but once they have had that day, they cannot be permitted to subject other parties to the cost of further proceedings attempting to re-litigate issues that have already been decided”. That is the case here.”

Bell v. Fishka, 2022 ONCA 683 (CanLII) at 1-2, 13

“To avoid trial or to narrow the issues, Ms. Burley did nothing.  She made no Offer to Settle, formally or informally.  Intransigence as such comes at a price.  As aptly stated by Wilson J. in Hussain v. Alam, 2013 ONSC 2250:

“Parties cannot take an untenable position, refuse to negotiate to achieve a reasonable compromise, and then when the outcome is adverse, plead that it would be unfair to require them to pay costs.”

Burley v. Bradley, 2019 ONCJ 737 (CanLII) at 4

“The parties cannot confer jurisdiction on a court through consent: “The common law unanimously supports the general proposition that parties cannot empower a court with the authority to make a determination where it otherwise has no authority to do so or it its authority is limited by statute: Rothgiesser v. Rothgiesser [2000 CarswellOnt 50 (Ont. C.A.)], 2020 CanLII 1153 at para. 19. Jurisdiction is not optional: it “cannot be conferred by consent, cured by attornment, or assumed voluntarily just because there is an interesting and significant issue to be considered”: N. (J.) v. Durham Regional Police Service, 2012 ONCA 428 (Ont. C.A.) at para. 25.”

          Simons v. Crow, 2020 ONSC 5940 (CanLII) at 37