“The applicant deposes that the respondent’s vow not to leave her alone, and to continue staging online protests outside her home, make her fear from her safety and I.S.’s safety. As noted, she is also concerned about the ramifications for I.S. if he is publicly associated with the respondent’s protest efforts against the government’s and public health authorities’ response to the pandemic.
The court can make an interim or final restraining order based on s. 46 of the Family Law Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. F.3, or s. 35 CLRA. In either case, a restraining order may contain one or more of the following:
a. An order restraining a party from directly or indirectly contacting or communicating with another party or any child in that other party’s lawful custody;
b. An order restraining a party from coming within a specified distance of one or more locations.
c. An order specifying exceptions to the provisions described in a) and b) above; and
d. Any other provision that the court considers appropriate.
In order to grant a restraining order, the moving party must have reasonable grounds to fear for his or her own safety or the safety of any child in his or her lawful custody. It is enough if an applicant has a legitimate fear, but the fear must not be entirely subjective. The fears can be of a personal or subjective nature, but they must be related to a respondent’s actions or words: PF. v. S.F., 2011 ONSC 154, 196 ACWS (3d) 746, at para. 31.
Specifically, the applicant seeks an order that the respondent not contact her or come within 100 m of any place the applicant or I.S. are known to be or frequent, including, but not limited to her home and place of work, that he remove all social media postings regarding the applicant, I.S., or any issues in this litigation, and refrain from making new postings, and that he not make a new GoFundMe page and that he delete his existing GoFundMe page.
With respect to the social media postings, I note that courts have ordered parents to refrain from making social media posts about the other parent or children, and to remove any existing social media posts: E.H. v. O.K., 2018 ONCJ 412, at paras. 133-136. In E.H., Sherr J. found such an order to be appropriate, because the father’s social media posts were a breach of the child’s privacy and contrary to her best interests.
In my view, it is appropriate that a tailored restraining order be made with respect to the respondent’s social media to protect the privacy of the child, and to assure his and the applicant’s safety. While I am cognizant that the respondent himself has not threatened to physically harm the applicant, by inviting his followers to search for the applicant, the respondent has invited, at the very least, on line bullying of her. The comments on the respondent’s posts include some that are upsetting and others that are threatening. I accept that the applicant’s fear for her and I.S.’s safety is reasonable. I therefore order:
a. The respondent shall delete any social media posts (i) that refer to the issues in this litigation, or (ii) that denigrate the mother, or (iii) that refer to the mother, and/or the child, and the current pandemic. This includes the two Facebook livestreams from May 20 and 27, 2020, which, if still available in any form on his Facebook account, shall be deleted;
b. The respondent shall refrain from creating any new social media posts (i) that refer to the issues in this litigation, or (ii) that denigrate the mother, or (iii) that refer to the mother, and/or the child and the current pandemic.”