The ''[http://canlii.ca/t/7vbw Divorce Act]'' is a federal law that you can find, along with other federal laws, on the website of the federal [http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/D-3.4/page-1.html federal Department of Justice], or on [http://canlii.ca/t/7vbw CanLII], a free website for searching Canadian court decisions and legislation. The ''Divorce Act'' only applies to ''married spouses'', people who are or were married to each other by a marriage commissioner or a religious official licensed to perform marriages. If you are not legally married, the ''Divorce Act'' does not apply to you, and the ''Family Law Act'' is the only game in town. While someone who isn't a married spouse can use the ''Divorce Act'' to apply for an order relating to the parenting of children or getting time with children, that person must get the court's permission first and the spouses people who are legally married to each other must have already started a court proceeding.

You must also be ''habitually resident'' in your province for at least one year before you can ask the court in your province for an order under the ''Divorce Act''. This means that you might have to delay filing starting a court proceeding for a divorce if you've moved to a new province within the last year.

The ''Divorce Act'' refers to children as ''children of the marriage''. A "child of the marriage " is defined in section 2(1) as:

In other words, a "child of the marriage " is someone who is less than 19 years old, — the age of majority in British Columbia, — or who is 19 and older if the child cannot support themselves. Since only people qualifying as ''spouses'' are obliged to pay child support, the definition of child of the marriage is expanded in section 2(2) to include stepparents:

*#divorce,*custody of and access to children,*child support, and*spousal support.;The ''Divorce Act'' is going to change in 2020, as a result of [https://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/42-1/bill/C-78/third-reading Bill C-78]. Among other things, how we talk about the care of children will change. We will be talking about "parenting orders" and "parenting plans" that cover "#decision-making responsibilities," "responsibility;#parenting time," and "contact" with a children;#child. Other changes will: *expand the things courts support; and parents have to think about when deciding what is in the best interests of children,*require parents to protect the children from their conflict,*require parents to try to resolve family law disputes out of court before going to court, and*implement new rules for when one parent wants to move with a child away from the other parents#spousal support.