WITHDRAWN FROM PARENTAL CONTROL

Ontario

... it would be too easy for an alienating parent to persuade a child to refuse to have any contact with the target parent alone, and then assert that the child had withdrawn from parental control or from the charge of the parents. There must be some credible evidence of withdrawal from or resistance to the authority of both parents. In this case, the evidence concerning the mother’s attempt to secure compliance with the order in question is thin and open to question. The sons’ evidence says they want to establish their own lives, but does not show that they have set up homes of their own, struck out from the former family unit on a new path of associations, or made their own decisions about medical care ... Indeed, the younger son lives in an apartment rented by the mother, and the older son returns to the mother’s home when he is not attending his university courses. The evidence here [is not persuasive] that either of the sons has actually withdrawn from the parents’ charge or from parental control. Thus, they remain “children of the marriage”.

(L. (N.) v. M. (R.R.) (2016), 2016 ONSC 809, 2016 CarswellOnt 1639 (Ont. S.C.J.) at para. 127 Perkins J.)