How is the relationship of a parent and child considered in a custody determination?
Alberta, Canada
The following excerpt is from J.(K.E.) v. J.(D.L.), 2002 ABQB 188 (CanLII):
In Racine v. Woods, 1983 CanLII 27 (SCC), [1983] 2 S.C.R. 173, Wilson J. said that the child’s tie with its natural parent is to be considered. She said at p. 185: . . . [the tie] is obviously very relevant in a determination as to what is in the child’s best interests. But it is the parental tie as a meaningful and positive force in the life of the child and not in the life of the parent that the court has to be concerned about. As has been emphasized many times in custody cases, a child is not a chattel in which its parents have a proprietary interest; it is a human being to whom they owe serious obligations. In that case the best interests of a child who had been in the custody of a couple for three years without the consent of the natural mother were held not to be best served by granting the natural mother custody.
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