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Open Court - Family. A. v. B.
In A. v. B. (Ont CA, 2025) the Ontario Court of Appeal granted a motion to quash a family law appeal, here from a motion order "declining to seal or otherwise restrict public access to the record or decisions in the Superior Court proceeding".
The court considers 'open court' privacy rights of children, here in a parenting context regarding interlocutory orders:[26] The relevant issue on this motion is about the appropriate appeal route and therefore which court has authority, under the Courts of Justice Act, to address the important privacy interests raised by a challenge to the motion judge’s order. Undoubtedly, children’s privacy interests can necessitate the application of special safeguards, which include the right to have their privacy respected “at all stages of the proceedings”: Ontario (Children’s Lawyer) v. Ontario (Information and Privacy Commissioner), 2018 ONCA 559, at paras. 73-75, leave to appeal refused, [2018] S.C.C.A. No. 360. To state that such interests are “collateral,” in the language of the caselaw about routes of appeal, in no way implies that those interests are not centrally important to the child or that the motion judge’s manner of dealing with them is undeserving of careful review, in an appeal brought in the proper forum.
[27] We would add the following: in virtually any family law case where there are parenting issues before the court, interlocutory orders may have significant and long-lasting effects on children. Issues related to parenting schedules, interim relocation, and medical decision-making for example, may all have lasting implications. The same may be the case with certain support or property-related decisions. However, as seen above, in assessing whether an order is final or interlocutory for the purpose of appeal routes, “effects” are at the wrong end of the telescope. This court’s decision in Paulpillai instructs that it is the legal nature of the order and its relationship to the substantive issues in dispute that must guide the analysis.
[28] The order sought to be appealed is interlocutory and any appeal lies to the Divisional Court with leave.
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