If I'm found to have caused my parent's death, does Ontario's forfeiture rule stop me from inheriting?

Ontario follows a long-standing public policy principle, often called the forfeiture rule, that a person cannot benefit financially from unlawfully causing another person's death. If you're found to have unlawfully killed your parent, this rule can prevent you from inheriting under their will, from receiving a share on intestacy, from collecting as a named beneficiary of life insurance or a registered plan, and from taking a share of jointly held property by survivorship — treating you, for these purposes, roughly as though you had predeceased them.

The rule generally turns on culpability, not merely on being present at or connected to the death. It most clearly applies to murder and, in many circumstances, manslaughter, but the analysis is fact-specific, and courts have shown some willingness to consider the degree of moral responsibility involved, particularly in cases involving diminished responsibility or a finding of not criminally responsible due to mental disorder. Ontario doesn't have a single, standalone statute setting out this rule in detail — it developed through the common law and continues to be applied and refined by the courts. Anyone facing this situation, on either side, needs individualized legal advice given how fact-dependent the analysis is.