Top Five 2008: AA v BB

Each year at OJEN’s Toronto Summer Law Institute, a judge from the Court of Appeal for Ontario identifies five cases that are of significance in the educational setting. This summary, based on these comments and observations, is appropriate for discussion and debate in the classroom setting.

AA v BB, 2007 ONCA 2

Can two women in a lesbian relationship both be declared the parents of a child, even if the biological father is still involved with the child? In this case, the Ontario Court of Appeal declared that both partners in a lesbian relationship were the child’s mothers, resulting in the child having three parents. The Court inferred the power to make this declaration from a gap in the Children’s Law Reform Act. The full decision is available here.