## Facts

- The parents separated and were subject to an earlier Yukon Supreme Court custody order concerning their son, K.
- The original order did not indicate whether K.’s views were obtained or considered.
- After the order, K. expressed a preference to live on an alternating-week schedule with each parent, and the parents followed that arrangement informally.
- When K. was 12, a dispute about child support brought both parents back to court with competing applications to vary parenting/custody-related arrangements.
- Neither parent asked the court simply to formalize the existing alternating-week schedule.
- K. had views about his parenting arrangements but was reluctant to express them directly to the judge or to either parent.

## Issues

1. Whether a child affected by a parenting/custody dispute has a legal right to be heard in the proceeding, and what that requires from the court.
2. How the child’s participation right relates to the best-interests analysis and to interpretation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, including Article 12.
3. What procedures should be used to obtain and consider a child’s views where the child is unwilling to speak directly in court.

## Decision

- The court held that children have legal rights to be heard in matters affecting them, including parenting/custody disputes.
- The court treated international child-rights obligations, including Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as an interpretive aid for domestic family-law decision-making.
- The court concluded it should take affirmative steps to obtain K.’s views and preferences through an appropriate process, despite his reluctance to speak directly to the court or his parents.
- The court emphasized that any final parenting disposition must consider the child’s views obtained through suitable means, as part of the best-interests determination.

## Legal Principles

- Children are rights-holders in parenting disputes; the affected child has a legal right to a meaningful opportunity to be heard.
- Best interests of the child requires decision-making informed by the child’s views and preferences, assessed in light of the child’s age and maturity.
- A child’s expressed views are an important factor, but not determinative instructions; the court must weigh them with other best-interests considerations.
- Courts should interpret domestic law consistently with Canada’s international commitments on children’s participation rights, including Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
- The method of hearing the child must be developmentally appropriate and protective, and can include indirect or structured mechanisms (e.g., reports, interviews, representation), especially where direct testimony would be harmful or impractical.

## Conclusion

The court required a rights-based approach to parenting litigation in which the child is given a meaningful, age-appropriate opportunity to be heard, and the child’s views are obtained and considered as part of the best-interests analysis, guided by domestic law and Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.


B.J.G. v. D.L.G., 2010 YKSC 44 (Yukon Sup. Ct. 2010)