Chamber
commons
Stage
2nd Reading
Introduced
Sep 18, 2025
Progress
This bill amends the Divorce Act to better protect children and domestic violence survivors during divorce and custody proceedings.
Key Changes
- Lawyers must assess the risk of family violence for their client and help create a safety plan if a risk exists
- Courts are prohibited from automatically considering allegations that a parent deliberately turned a child against the other parent (often called 'parental alienation')
- Courts and orders cannot require children to attend reunification therapy or restrict parenting time solely to improve a child's relationship with the other parent
- Courts cannot assume family violence has stopped just because spouses separated, no charges were laid, or there are no visible injuries
- Children may provide their views directly to a court in writing or through a private interview, with both parents' consent and under safety conditions
- A parent leaving home due to family violence, including leaving the province with children, is not automatically considered to be acting against the child's best interests
Gotchas
- The bill removes the existing presumption that equal parenting time is in the best interests of the child, which is a significant shift from the current Divorce Act framework
- The prohibition on considering parental alienation allegations has an exception: courts can still consider evidence of deliberate interference with a child's relationship if the interfering parent has also engaged in family violence and the evidence is relevant to the child's best interests
- Ongoing proceedings that started before this bill comes into force will be governed by the new rules, not the old ones
- If a prior court decision relied on a parental alienation finding, that prior decision can be revisited as a 'change in circumstances' under the new law, potentially reopening settled custody arrangements
- The bill shifts the burden of proof in relocation cases: if the child primarily lives with the parent who wants to move, the opposing parent must prove the move is not in the child's best interests and that the child should live primarily with them instead
Who's Affected
- Children involved in divorce and custody proceedings
- Survivors of domestic violence going through divorce
- Family lawyers and legal advisers
- Family court judges
- Parents seeking or opposing relocation after separation
- Parents accused of parental alienation in custody disputes
Vibes
0 responses
Gotchas
- The bill removes the existing presumption that equal parenting time is in the best interests of the child, which is a significant shift from the current Divorce Act framework
- The prohibition on considering parental alienation allegations has an exception: courts can still consider evidence of deliberate interference with a child's relationship if the interfering parent has also engaged in family violence and the evidence is relevant to the child's best interests
- Ongoing proceedings that started before this bill comes into force will be governed by the new rules, not the old ones
- If a prior court decision relied on a parental alienation finding, that prior decision can be revisited as a 'change in circumstances' under the new law, potentially reopening settled custody arrangements
- The bill shifts the burden of proof in relocation cases: if the child primarily lives with the parent who wants to move, the opposing parent must prove the move is not in the child's best interests and that the child should live primarily with them instead
Summary
Bill C-223, the Keeping Children Safe Act, changes Canada's Divorce Act to make family courts and lawyers more aware of domestic violence when making decisions about children after a separation or divorce. It requires lawyers to assess whether family violence is a risk for their client and to help create a safety plan if it is. It also prevents courts from using certain assumptions that might unfairly dismiss claims of abuse. The bill addresses concerns that concepts like 'parental alienation' — the idea that one parent is turning a child against the other — have been misused in court to give abusive parents more access to children. It prohibits courts from automatically considering such allegations and bans courts from ordering 'reunification therapy,' which forces a child to rebuild a relationship with a parent they have rejected or become estranged from. The bill also gives courts a way to hear directly from children about their wishes in custody cases, under strict privacy protections. It updates the rules around parental relocation, making it easier for a parent fleeing violence to move with their children without that decision being automatically held against them.
Automatically generated from bill text using Claude
Vibes
0 responses