Dealing with Foreign Family Law Orders in Ontario

Omar Ha-Redeye was quoted in the Lawyer’s Daily on March 10, 2022, in an article analyzing the Court of Appeal for Ontario’s decision in Krause v. Bougrine, 2022 ONCA 161 (CanLII),

Toronto lawyer Omar Ha-Redeye said that “courts have done this where it would be unfair to enforce the order, such as where the other party is isolated, cannot communicate with the court, and unable to participate in the proceedings,” as was the case in Ziemianczyk v. Ziemianczyk, 2008 ONCJ 172.

“Courts may also refuse to register a foreign order on public policy grounds, such as the payor being unemployed and having no income to pay support,” said Ha-Redeye, who runs Fleet Street Law, a legal incubator in Toronto, and teaches at Ryerson University’s Lincoln Alexander School of Law.

“However, this wasn’t the case in Krause, where the father engaged in his own legal proceedings in Morocco, and was able to travel to Finland — including removing the kids from there illegally — and also participated in the proceedings there.”

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Ha-Redeye said that while Bougrine is “promising in that it may simplify the enforcement of interjurisdictional support, it does not resolve issues of how courts in Ontario should treat a foreign judgment that is inherently unjust or contrary to the public policy principles in our own family law guidelines.” “These issues did not emerge here, and may need to be resolved further in a future case.”