Step-Child Support - "In the place of a parent"

During cohabitation, a common-law spouse has the obligation to contribute to the support his or her spouse's children. This obligation is secondary to that of the child's natural parents. On separation, the court can force a non-parent to continue to support the spouse's child, provided the payor has "stood in the place of a parent" or was in loco parentis, as it used to be known.

In a controversial decision (Carrignan v. Carrignan), the Manitoba Court of Appeal said that, where the parent-child relationship had ended, the step-parent did not have to continue supporting the child. Some courts of other jurisdictions had decided that where the child withdrew from the parent-child relationship, the obligation to support could be extinguished. The Manitoba Court of Appeal decided that Manitoba step-fathers could unilaterally terminate the relationship.

After a number of challenges over the years, the Manitoba Court of Appeal grew uncomfortable with its decision, which was generally criticized and not followed by the courts of appeal in other provinces. In a rare move, the Court of Appeal in a similar case, Chartier v. Chartier, granted leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The decision in Chartier, which you can access at the Supreme Court site, held that the relationship is not one from which the step-parent can unilaterally withdraw. The court decided that the perspective of the child was only part of the decision-making process and that the step-parent's representations and treatment of the child in the formation of the family relationship were important as well.