Our latest installment of Covid-19 related parenting cases was released on April 17, 2020 by the Honourable Judge R.P. McQuillan of the British Columbia Provincial Court. In this case there was an order in place for the parties to share equal parenting time of the child on a 2/2/3 schedule. The parties had informally agreed to modify the schedule to week on, week off, during the pandemic. The mother then denied the father parenting time. Her position was that the denial was due to the father’s failure to assure her that he would administer the child’s asthma medication. The father applied to enforce the order, for police enforcement of the order, compensatory (make-up) parenting time, and penalties against the mother. The father’s position was that he would administer the asthma inhaler in the event the child became ill but did not believe the child, in fact, had asthma, so was unwilling to administer it to prevent respiratory illness.
The evidence provided by the mother included a letter from the child’s pediatrician recommending that the asthma medication be administered regularly. The father asserted that administering asthma medications which are unnecessary may be harmful to the child.
The Judge was persuaded by the mother’s evidence that the child suffered from asthma. The Judge indicated that erring on the side of caution was in order, particularly in the current era of Covid-19. The Judge concluded that the denial of the father’s parenting time was not wrongful, that he was not entitled to compensatory parenting time, nor was it appropriate to make the order police enforceable. The Judge ultimately made an order for parenting time to recommence on a week on, week off schedule and that the father comply with all asthma treatment recommendations of the pediatrician.
Read the full decision here.
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