What happens when an arbitrator's award conflicts with the best-interests-of-the-child test?

The best-interests-of-the-child test is the governing standard for parenting decisions throughout Ontario family law, and a family arbitrator deciding a parenting issue is expected to apply that same standard, not a different or more relaxed one just because the process is private. If an award genuinely doesn't reflect the child's best interests, this can become a real problem, both because the arbitrator may not have properly applied the correct legal test, which can itself be a ground to challenge the award, and because a court asked to incorporate the award into an enforceable order retains its own responsibility to consider the child's best interests.

In practice, this means an award that's clearly inconsistent with the best-interests standard is vulnerable on more than one front: it may not survive being incorporated into a court order, and it may also be challengeable directly as a legal error. This is part of why choosing an arbitrator with real, specific family law experience matters so much for parenting disputes. Anyone concerned that an award doesn't reflect their child's best interests should get legal advice quickly about the available options.