Court procedures and orders make up the subject of January 2020 Child Protection Project Committee meeting
February 5, 2020
BY Kevin Zakreski
BCLI’s Child Protection Project Committee continued its review of the Child, Family and Community Service Act at its January 2020 committee meeting, moving on to a new topic. At this meeting the committee considered selected court procedures and orders under the act.
The committee discussed three issues in the meeting.
First, it tackled the procedure for consent orders under section 60. The committee examined the section’s formal requirements, particularly the requirement for written consent to an order under section 60. The committee considered whether the section could be improved if the court had a power to dispense with the requirement that the consent be in writing.
Then, the committee discussed two issues concerning section 54.01 of the act. The first issue involved expanding the range of orders available under the section to include a continuing custody order. The second was whether to clarify the effect of making on order under the section on parental rights. It’s actually section 54.2 that spells out the effect of an order under section 54.01. But the operative provision simply says, “the individual to whom custody is transferred becomes the child’s guardian.” Should it be modified to state that this individual becomes the child’s sole guardian?
The goal of the committee’s review is formulating tentative recommendations for law reform, which will be published in a consultation paper later in the project’s life cycle. The consultation paper will allow the public to comment on the committee’s proposals to modernize the Child, Family, and Community Service Act.
