(The "equal" in the title of this last act meant that women could apply for guardianship as well as men.) ![]() Guardianship crept into the family law arena however when the provisions of the Apprentices and Minors Act were moved into the Infants Act, which mostly had to do with children's ability to enter into binding contracts, and later into the Equal Guardianship of Infants Act. Custody would mean the parental rights and obligations exercised by parents and guardianship would mean the parent-like rights and obligations exercised by people who aren't parents. If the clock was stopped here, things would've been fairly clear. This was the first piece of legislation on the subject.) (To be clear, guardianship had been known to the common law for hundreds of years. Essentially, it talked about the parent-like rights and obligations masters had in respect of the minor children who were their apprentices. That law dealt with the obligations masters had to provide the necessities of life to the apprentices in their charge. The Divorce Act still only talks about custody and access.īritish Columbia first passed a law on guardianship in the late 1880s, in the Apprentices and Minors Act. 91 and 92 of the Constitution Act which assigns the power to legislate on divorce exclusively to the federal government.Ĭanada received the English law as well of course, and it remains on the books today, although much amended, as the Divorce Act. Since British Columbia didn't join Canada until after Confederation in 1867, British Columbia managed to keep its own Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act on the books for another hundred years, despite the division of powers in ss. ![]() The Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act was just one of the English laws that were brought into the Colony of British Columbia in 1858 by the proclamation of Governor Sir James Douglas. unlike today's Divorce Act and Family Relations Act, which seem to spend pages on the subject. The first law on divorce, the English Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act, disposed of the care and control of children in one short paragraph about custody and access. Let me explain.Īt one point, in 1857 to be exact, the law only talked about the children of separated parents in terms of custody and access. My off-hand reference to "complicated legal principles" has proven unsatisfactory to many, including a lot of lawyers. It is not possible for the parties to have joint custody while one parent is the child's sole guardian." sole custody and joint guardianship and,."Because of certain complicated legal principles involving things like the doctrine of paramountcy, the following combinations of custody and guardianship are available: ![]() See my post " Family Law Act Introduced!" for more information. Important Update: The Family Law Act was introduced on 14 November 2011 and contains a number of provisions which are critical to the comments made in this post.
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