===The ''Divorce Act'', RSC 1985, c 3 (2nd Supp)===The ''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 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 became law in 1985. A number of very important changes 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, act became law on 1 July 2020 which changed how we talk about parenting children and the ''Family Law Act'' is the only game in townbest interests of children. While someone who isn't a married spouse can use the The current ''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.covers these basic subjects:

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#getting divorced;#decision-making responsibility;#parenting time and contact with children;#child support; and,#spousal support.

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're not legally married, the ''Divorce Act'' doesn't apply to you, and the ''Family Law Act'' is the only game in town.) 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     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: