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Family Violence in the Family Law Act and the Divorce Act

343 bytes removed, 23:14, 28 July 2023
Some examples of family violence
* The Supreme Court of Canada discussed family violence in ''[https://canlii.ca/t/jpbbg Barendregt v Grebliunas]'', 2022 SCC 22. This BC case was about a mother wanting to move away (a relocation case) but the principles will likely be applicable in other cases where the court has to determine what's in the ''best interest of the child.'' At the original trial, the judge found that the mother had been “subject to the father’s controlling and overbearing personality." The judge found "possibly some degree of emotional abuse" and found she had been physically assaulted and emotionally traumatized. The father’s animosity continued during the trial. He added a nude selfie of the mother in an affidavit. This served no purpose except to humiliate her. The Supreme Court of Canada confirmed the trial judge's decision and allowed the mother to relocate, and made it clear that the father's abusive behaviour negatively affected the quality of his parenting. "[T]he suggestion that domestic abuse or family violence has no impact on the children and has nothing to do with the perpetrator’s parenting ability is untenable."
* In ''[https://canlii.ca/t/jxc12 K.S.P. v. B.R.J.]'', 2023 BCSC 886, the court held that “it is an act of family violence to throw an object at a person during an argument.”
* In ''[https://canlii.ca/t/jsbnv K.L. v. A.P.]'', 2022 BCPC 214, the court found the father was engaged in family violence. There was a “continual pattern of harassing, aggressive and degrading text and email messages; surreptitious and unwanted video recording of [the mother]; along with conflicts at exchanges with the [the child] present requiring police intervention.”
* In ''[https://canlii.ca/t/jrfn1 M.S.R. v. D.M.R.]'', 2022 BCSC 1398, by alienating the child from the mother, the father had engaged in family violence. The court noted that “the harm [was] ongoing and [did] represent a pattern of controlling behaviour directed at the child.”
* In ''[https://canlii.ca/t/js7ff K.S.P. v. J.T.P.]'', 2022 BCSC 1727, the judge for the family law dispute said it would be an abuse of process to allow the husband to challenge the findings of fact made by the judge for the civil trial in three separate hearings regarding incidents of domestic violence, even though there were pending appeals on two orders.
* In ''[https://canlii.ca/t/hzvfz A.B. v. C.D. and E.F.]'', 2019 BCSC 254, the BC Supreme Court held that family violence includes calling a transgender child by birth name, using the wrong pronoun, and denying hormone treatment. This decision was overturned by the BC Court of Appeal who held the father’s conduct was not “sufficiently intentional or unresponsive to [the child’s] communications with him to ground a finding of family violence.” The Legislature subsequently amended the ''[[Family Law Act]]'' to clarify that behaviour doesn't need to be intentional to count as family violence.
* In ''[https://canlii.ca/t/j1tsp T.C. v. K.C.]'', 2019 BCSC 1299, the court held that it was a "significant violation" of "personal autonomy" for the father to lift up and remove the mother from their room when she refused to move. It amounted to family violence.
 
 
* In ''[https://canlii.ca/t/hs0jh C.A.L. v. D.E.L.]'', 2018 BCSC 772, the court confirmed that judges must approach the analysis of risk of family violence from a “broad and contextual perspective.”
 * In ''[https://canlii.ca/t/hrwnx Primeau v. L’Heureux]'', 2018 BCSC 740, the father’s conduct demonstrated a pattern of coercive and controlling behaviour. He deliberately jeopardized her employment by speaking ill of her, including complaining to the mother’s place of employment resulting in caused her a loss of income at a time when he was unrelentingly (while not reliably paying court-ordered child support), complaining about the mother made baseless complaints against her to the RCMP, and refusing to respond failed to requests that should not have been contentiouscommunicate reasonably, and using used the child as a "pawn for example by including failing " in order to grant permission for get back at the child to participate in activities like a family weddingmother.  '''''Comment:''''' ''In the sentence "...unrelivably paying court-ordered child support...", it appears there might be a typo. I suggest editing "unrelivably" to "unrelentingly".'' * In ''[http://canlii.ca/t/hwqqr S.A.H. v. J.J.G.V.]'', 2018 BCSC 2278, the court found that a the father consistently arguing 's constant assertion that the mother's and the children's actions were contrary to scripture and sinful amounted to spiritual abuse and , which fits into the broad definition of family violence in the ''Family Law Act''. * In ''[http://canlii.ca/t/hvw3v N.M.A. v. K.D.L.]'', 2018 BCSC 1879, the court found that derogatory and abusive language in the father's emails to the mother was beyond mere bickering and unpleasantness and that this . This kind of language, especially when it occurs over an extended period of time, can amount to emotional abuse and be family violence. 
* In ''[http://canlii.ca/t/hxcc8 S.A.W. v. P.J.W.]'', 2018 BCPC 376, the court found a distinction between "mere arguments and insulting discourse", or even "nasty or spiteful arguments", and behaviour that is so "belittling, demeaning, and insulting" (and repeated frequently in front of a child), that it was at a different level and fit the broad definition of family violence, although likely at the lower end of the scale.