OCLA researcher Denis Rancourt, PhD, has authored a new report about the recent Ontario family law decisions in the case of J.N. v. C.G.
The report, entitled “The Court of Appeal for Ontario’s decision in J.N. v. C.G. brings the province’s appellate judiciary into disrepute”, begins as follows:
In the recent family law case J.N. v. C.G., the divorced parents sought a court decision regarding which parent should have deciding authority for COVID-19 vaccination of their two youngest children, aged 10 and 12.
Justice A. Pazaratz gave the self-represented mother (J.N.) sole decision-making authority with respect to the vaccinations,1 and awarded her costs in the motion;2 on the basis that her concerns were the result of conscientious enquiry, were not unfounded or arbitrary, that the children had not been manipulated and held a consistent desire not to be vaccinated, and that psychological harm could be caused if they were forced to be vaccinated by their father (C.G.).3
Basically, Justice Pazaratz found that the mother was the more rational, closest and concerned adult to make the decision of vaccination for the two youngest children (which every adult is free to make for themselves), which also respects the children’s constant and independently expressed wishes; on the considered basis that this is the best outcome for the welfare of the children.
The report goes on to provide a detailed criticism of the Ontario Court of Appeal’s decision in the case:
The appellate court’s 23-page decision is dismissive, even overtly sarcastic at one point (paragraph 30), and, most importantly, denies the mother’s natural justice rights, in a matter of forced bodily injections no less, by misrepresenting the family court decision and disregarding the established law of evidence regarding judicial notice, while imposing its own order that the father have sole decision-making authority “with respect to the children’s vaccination against COVID-19”.
(…)
Basically, on my study of the decision, if I may paraphrase, the appellate court’s reasoning for circumventing the established law of judicial notice (and principles of natural justice) in this case about forcibly injecting children is: “well, it’s the government, and there’s a declared pandemic”.
(…)
This appellate court in-effect wants to “simplify” all similar cases in this way: the government position should be taken as absolute, and the parent’s only option is to prove that their particular child would be at too high a risk compared to an unquantified benefit — “the parent seeking not to have the children vaccinated, had the onus to establish that, despite Health Canada’s opinion [taken as proven fact] as to the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness, they should not be” (at para. 46).
(…)
Why is it so difficult for an appellate court to admit the possibility that, when billion-dollar secret contracts are in play, and when the government structurally applies a self-reporting framework with manufacturers, government public health positions are not entirely and objectively based on actual and verifiable science, and that, therefore, the government should not be taken at its (website) word in establishing facts arising from complex and technical manipulations controlled by an industry that does not have a stellar reputation for safety?
In the present case, the family-court judge acted wisely, applying the principles of family law, whereas the appellate court was flippant, to the extent that a court can be flippant, and brings the province’s appellate judiciary into disrepute.
(…)
Finally, it is comforting to note that the appellate court’s decision in J.N. v. C.G. has already engendered bold and significant pushback from a judge of the family court in Ontario, in a similar case of parents having opposite positions regarding COVID-19 vaccination of their children, in which government pronouncements about “safe and effective” are at issue.
Although couched in terms of distinguished circumstances, the said pushback is as close to a “rebellion” as one can observe in a common law court system.”
(…)
Click here to read the full report.
