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
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 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 starting a court proceeding for a divorce if you've moved to a new province within the last year.
. 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: <blockquote><tt>For the purposes of the definition “child of the marriage” in subsection (1), a child of two spouses or former spouses includes</tt></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><tt>(a) any child for whom they both stand in the place of parents; and</tt></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><tt>(b) any child of whom one is the parent and for whom the other stands in the place of a parent</tt></blockquote></blockquote>
The ''Divorce Act'' covers these basic subjects: