Family Law Act Ruling: Unmarried Couples & Property Division

FLA case law, property division and unmarried couples

Legal aid (2014). 

When the Family Law Act (FLA) was announced at the end of 2012, many people pointed out a quirk in the law that would effect unmarried couples who split up between March 18, 2011 and March 18, 2013. As a general rule, laws do not affect events from before they came into force. However, the way the FLA was written means that it applied to unmarried couples who split up as far back as March 11, 2011.

Up until now, it has been unclear whether the court system would interpret the act this way. A recent ruling, Meservy v. Field, has confirmed that this is indeed how the law will work.

The old Family Relations Act did not consider unmarried couples to be spouses under any circumstances, and so did not allow them to follow those rules for dividing property. Instead, they would have to start a Supreme Court case under the existing rules about unjust enrichment to try and divide property when they split up.

The FLA considers unmarried couples to be spouses as long as they have been living in a “marriage-like” relationship for at least two years.

It also gives couples two years from the date they split up to start an application with the court to divide property. 

This means that unmarried couples who split up before the FLA came into force (on March 18, 2013) could file for the division of property using the FLA rules as long as they:

• split up after March 18, 2011, and
• it hasn’t been more than two years since the split.

How to Obtain a Court-appointed lawyer in Child Protection Cases

                            

How to Get a Court-Appointed Lawyer for Your Child Protection Case

Legal Services Society. (2013).

This new publication is for people facing a complicated child protection hearing who’ve been denied legal aid but can’t afford a lawyer. The booklet explains in plain language (and appealing graphics) why and how you can make a “JG application” for a free court-appointed lawyer. The two necessary forms are included right in the booklet, clearly explained and perforated for easy removal. Also includes what to say and do in court at the JG application hearing.

Your Rights on Reserve: A Legal Tool-Kit for Aboriginal Women in BC

“Your Rights on Reserve” a Legal Tool-kit for Aboriginal Women in British Columbia

Led by Atira Women’s Resource Society’s legal advocate Amber Prince, this tool-kit was created by Aboriginal women, for Aboriginal women.

Click here to download: Your Rights on Reserve - a Legal Tool-kit for Aboriginal Women in British Columbia

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday April 10^th, 2014

 Media Contact:

Caithlin Scarpelli

caithlin_scarpelli@atira.bc.ca

T: 604-331-1407 x. 104 C: 604-813-0851

RE: “Your Rights on Reserve” a Legal Tool-kit for Aboriginal Women in British Columbia

Atira Women’s Resource Society is thrilled to announce the release of a legal tool-kit for Aboriginal Women in British Columbia.

Led by Atira Women’s Resource Society’s legal advocate Amber Prince, this tool-kit was created by Aboriginal women, for Aboriginal women.

Says Ms. Prince, “As Aboriginal women with varying experience with the law we have seen in our work and in our lives how gaps in legal information creates hardships for Aboriginal women in BC.”

The tool-kit aims to address some of the identified gaps in legal information for Aboriginal women.

“We hope this tool-kit will be of assistance to women, their families and their communities,” says Prince, “as well as for service providers helping Aboriginal women understand some of their legal rights in BC and especially as they apply on reserve.”

The tool-kit includes chapters on taxation, employment issues on Reserve, social assistance / welfare, education, Indian Status, Band membership, Reserve land and housing issues, wills and estates Issues, family law, relationship violence, Ministry of Children and Families Development and governance issues.

An Advisory Committee member for the Tool-kit, Donna Moon, notes, "I am excited for the launch and to have been a contributor to this important, much needed tool-kit!"

The Tool kit was funded by the Law Foundation of British Columbia and is available for download HERE

We are grateful to the Law Foundation of British Columbia for its support, as well as the Legal Services Society of British Columbia for donating staff expertise to the project. We would also like to thank our volunteers who contributed to the project, law student Robyn Gifford, and lawyer Mary Childs.

For more information on the tool-kit please contact our media contact above.

First child with 3 parents on birth certificate in B.C.

Della Wolf is B.C.'s 1st child with 3 parents on birth certificate

B.C.'s new Family Law Act is the first to allow birth certificates with more than 2 parents

By Catherine Rolfsen, CBC News,Feb 06, 2014.

A Vancouver baby has just become the first child in British Columbia with three parents listed on a birth certificate.

Three-month-old Della Wolf Kangro Wiley Richards is the daughter of lesbian parents and their male friend.

"It feels really just natural and easy, like any other family," said biological father Shawn Kangro. "It doesn't feel like anything is strange about it."

B.C.'s new Family Law Act, which came into effect last year, allows for three or even more parents.

Della's family is the first to go through the process, and they finalized the birth certificate registration last week.

B.C., which is celebrating Family Day on Monday, is the first province in Canada with legislation to allow three parents on a birth certificate, although it's been achieved elsewhere through litigation.

The new Family Law Act, which came into effect in March 2013, aims to clarify who is a parent and who isn't as more couples turn to assisted reproduction.

The act allow donors to be listed as additional parents, if the parents sign a written agreement before conception.

"The really big shift in the Family Law Act in terms of parents, is how you decide who's a parent," said findlay.

"In the old days, we looked at biology and genetic connections. And that's no longer true. We now look at the intention of the parties who are contributing to the creation of the child, and intend to raise the child. And that's a really, really big shift."

Della's parents say they've had overwhelming support from family, friends and their East Vancouver community.

"Of course there's the odd person who worries that we've stepped into something that doesn't have a precedent," said Richards.

"Now that it has come to fruition and people see that we're just this family doing our thing, it's real now, and it becomes much easier to digest for whoever had doubts."

The role men can play in preventing violence against girls and women

   Bystanders, men have role in preventing violence against women, victim’s father says - ‘It’s just wrong, and I’m never going to shut up about it’

Cockburn, N. (2014). Ottawa Citizen. 

OTTAWA — One of the things that still haunts the father of Rehtaeh Parsons is that there were people who didn’t help his daughter.

“We know what happens now, when we do nothing,” Glen Canning said Tuesday. “It can drive a victim to suicide. We have to let victims know that people care, and of course the best way to do that is to try to prevent them from being victims in the first place.”

Parsons, from Nova Scotia, was taken off life support after a suicide attempt in April 2013 that her family says was prompted by months of bullying.

The 17-year-old girl was tormented after a digital photograph purporting to show her being sexually assaulted in November 2011 was distributed around her school, they have said. Two men, now 19, face child pornography-related charges connected to the case.

Canning, a writer and photographer, has been outspoken since his daughter’s death. He was in Ottawa on Tuesday to speak at a “community discussion” held by the Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women.

During an interview with the Citizen, he pointed to high-profile cases such as that of a pair of high school football players raping a drunken 16-year-old girl in Steubenville, Ohio, “where there are people around, watching what’s happening, and none of them are saying or doing anything. They’re just letting it happen,” he said.

“I’m trying to reinforce the idea with people that that’s completely unacceptable. That’s just wrong — in my opinion you’re partaking ... in a sexual assault, if you’re just standing there, watching it happen without doing anything to stop it or to hold people accountable for it.”

Other advocates have worked to spread a similar message in Ottawa, particularly around the need for bystanders to step in if they see sexual assaults or harassment in transit stations and on buses.

Canning said men must play a role in ending violence against women, and in changing culture that encourages it or turns a blind eye.

“Violence against women is a men’s issue. We need men to start setting examples, we need men to start speaking out, we need men to start challenging the culture that goes around with rape and sexual assault of women, where people make jokes about it or make light of it,” he said.

People are part of the problem when they downplay incidents or cast doubt on victims and create an environment where victims don’t feel comfortable reporting an assault, he said.

“You’re perpetuating the issue where women just don’t bother coming forward at all because of how society looks at it. ... As innocent as that may seem to you, you are actually part of the problem. You are why women don’t come forward, and you are why sexual predators have victim after victim.

“It’s just wrong, and I’m never going to shut up about it,” Canning said.

The culture is ingrained, he said, referring to a chant at frosh week at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax that glorified the sexual assault of young girls.

“It can be a little bit frustrating, but the more the message is out there, the less people have an excuse,” Canning said.

The event was being held in Jean Pigott Place at City Hall from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

ncockburn@ottawacitizen.com

twitter.com/NecoCockburn

With files from The Canadian Press

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

Webinar: Equality Values in Family Law

Webinar: Equality Values in Family Law

Think the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is irrelevant in family law? Think again! Join experienced family law lawyers Megan Ellis and Zara Suleman, retired BC Supreme Court Justice Donna Martinson, and West Coast LEAF Legal Director Laura Track for an informative and engaging workshop on the ways in which Charter equality values can inform your family law work. You’ll gain practical tips and insights for using Charter equality values in cases involving financial issues, parenting arrangements, family violence, and assessments of credibility. This course qualifies for 2 CPD credits.

Presented jointly by West Coast LEAF and the Trial Lawyers Association of BC.

February 27, 2014, 12:00-2:00pm

$25

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/equality-values-in-family-law-tickets-10555440607

New Article that Critiques the new BC Family Law Act & PDOV/MCFD released a new three- year, $5.5 million action plan

Rachel Treloar, Susan B. Boyd. Family Law Reform in (Neoliberal) Context: British Columbia's New Family Law Act International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family 2014; doi: 10.1093/lawfam/ebt017

Retrieved from: http://lawfam.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/ebt017?ijkey=PLUhZbbmHlOyqZ8&keytype=ref

***************************************************

Provincial Office of Domestic Violence has released a new three- year, $5.5 million action plan. The Action plan can be found on their website at http://www.mcf.gov.bc.ca/podv/pdf/dv_pp_booklet.pdf

N E W S R E L E A S E - Ministry of Children & Family Development

For Immediate Release

2014CFD0003

- 000134

Feb. 5, 2014

Ministry of Children and Family Development Government 

launches three-year domestic violence plan

VICTORIA – Government’s extensive consultation with anti-violence groups has culminated in

the release of the Provincial Domestic Violence Plan. The new three-year, $5.5-million Provincial 

Domestic Violence Plan – co-ordinated through the Provincial Office of Domestic Violence (PODV) 

– delivers on government’s commitment to make B.C. a safer place for women, children and anyone 

who has been affected by domestic violence.

The plan is the result of public and anti-violence stakeholder consultations and includes the creation of 

additional specialized domestic violence units, programs for Aboriginal families, direct services for perpetrators,

and improved access to services and social housing for survivors in rural and remote communities

.

The plan also includes an Aboriginal response and specific approaches to address the unique needs of immigrant 

and refugee women and women with disabilities. Government will invest in direct services to address focus areas 

that were identified during the consultation process as key priorities.

Highlights of the plan:

 $1 million to help with the start-up and implementation of 

additional specialized domestic violence units, which will 

provide direct services to high- risk families.

 $2 million to develop and deliver programs specifically for 

Aboriginal women, men and children affected by domestic 

violence– including victims and perpetrators.

 $1 million to provide support and intervention for perpetrators

to hold them accountable and support changes in behaviour and 

attitude.

 $1.5 million in direct supports to women and children for 

housing and transportation in rural and remote communities.