For a 16- or 17-year-old child, taking the step to withdraw from parental control is a major decision, and is typically a step taken in the context of complex, challenging, and emotionally-charged relationships with one or more parents. Practitioners should be well-versed in the issues relating to children who withdraw from parental control, and should be aware of the many different legal proceedings that might arise in connection to a child’s decision to withdraw. This article draws attention to one example of a child’s decision to withdraw from parental control that was connected to a series of legal actions. These actions resulted in the child’s father being declared a vexatious litigant and his appeal being dismissed by the Court of Appeal for Ontario in Flores v Glegg (2022 ONCA 825).
The OBA’s Child and Youth section has been interested in withdrawals from parental control for some time. Recently, the section published an article in June 2022 (Autonomy vs Best Interests: Withdrawing from Parental Control and the Paternalistic Approach of Parental Alienation by Adrianna Mills and Enniael Stair), which discussed the unique ability of 16- and 17-year olds to withdraw from parental control and the potential inconsistencies in the law regarding how the courts address the interests of parents and children. That article discussed an earlier proceeding related to the decision in Flores (RG v KG, 2017 ONCA 108).
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