Grandparent (and other family member) Access

When parents divorce and settle their custody and visitation issues between themselves, it not only the parties and children who might be affected. Often children who have had a close relationship with other adults, grandparents or aunts and uncles, for example, find that those significant persons have no right and opportunity to see them because the parent, through whom they might be connected, perhaps has no rights or is unprepared to share them with those significant adults.

Recent changes to the Child and Family Services Act allow "family members", as that phrase is defined in the Act, to apply for visiting rights to a child. The law previously restricted such applications, usually by disenfranchised grandparents, by requiring the proposed visitor to prove that there were "extraordinary circumstances" to justify the court making an order.

Now the test for "family members" is the more common one, "what is in the best interests of the child".

The old test - one that was rarely met - will still apply to non-family members who wish to have access to a child, such as a former babysitter, former family friend or other person who might have established a significant relationship with the child.