What is the test for having a final joint custody order?

Children’s Aid Society of Ottawa v. Y.(P.), [2007] O.J. No. 1639, 2007 CanLII 14325 (S.C.J.) is a protection case involving a situation where the two parents had an existing final joint custody order. Parfett J. concluded that it was in the child’s best interests for the mother to have sole custody and made an order to that effect in the protection proceeding pursuant to s. 57.1. That case did not contain any specific discussion or analysis about the issue that has been raised in the case at bar. However Parfett J., at para. 41, did conclude that there had been a material change in circumstances that would justify a change in the original joint custody order.

In Children’s Aid Society of Niagara Region v. B.(A.), 2007 CarswellOnt 9128 (S.C.J.), J.W. Scott J. considered a situation where there was an existing custody order under the Children’s Law Reform Act, where custody of the child had been awarded to the maternal grandparents and where one of the parents had generous and liberal access to the child and the other parent had supervised access to the child.