Child Protection Court Timeline in Ontario: Start to Finish

If a children's aid society has served you with a protection application, the paperwork can feel like a wall of dates and unfamiliar terms. Child protection cases move faster than most other family court cases, so knowing the stages early helps you plan your response and your time.

This article walks through the main steps in an Ontario child protection case, from how it starts to the hearing. The time limits below are maximums set by the rules, and the real calendar in your case can differ, so a lawyer can confirm what applies to you.

How a protection case begins

A society can apply to the court to decide whether a child is in need of protection. The grounds the court looks at include physical harm caused by the person who has charge of the child, or by a failure to care for or protect the child, and a risk that the child is likely to suffer physical or emotional harm.

Sometimes a child is removed before any court date. A justice of the peace can issue a warrant allowing a worker to bring a child under 16 to a place of safety. A worker may also act without a warrant if they believe on reasonable and probable grounds that a child under 16 needs protection and that waiting for a warrant would put the child's health or safety at substantial risk.

Once a child has been brought to a place of safety, the child must within five days be brought before the court, returned to the person who last had charge, or placed under a temporary care agreement or an agreement with a 16- or 17-year-old.

The timetable the rules set

Rule 33(1) of the Family Law Rules sets the timetable for every child protection case, including status reviews. The times are maximums, measured from the start of the case.

A party must serve and file its plan of care or supervision at least seven days before a conference, even if that is sooner than the timetable would otherwise require.

These times are hard to move. The court may lengthen a time in the timetable only if the child's best interests require it, and the parties cannot agree to lengthen it by consent.

Who takes part in the case

The parties are the applicant, the society with jurisdiction and the child's parent. For a First Nations, Inuk or Métis child, a representative chosen by each of the child's bands and communities is also a party.

• Grandparents and others who cared for the child continuously during the six months before the hearing, including a foster parent, get the same notice as a party and may attend, have a lawyer and make submissions. Any further part needs the court's leave.
• A child 12 or older is entitled to notice and to attend, unless the court is satisfied that being present would cause the child emotional harm.
• Child protection hearings are held without the public present unless the court orders otherwise.

Temporary orders while the case is underway

The court may not adjourn a child protection hearing for more than 30 days. A longer adjournment is possible if all parties present and the person who will care for the child during the adjournment consent, and the court does not know of an absent party who objects.

When a hearing is adjourned, the court makes a temporary care and custody order. It may return the child to the person who had charge before the society stepped in, do so under society supervision, place the child with another consenting person under supervision, or place the child in society care.

The court may use the last two options only if there are reasonable grounds to believe the child is likely to suffer harm and cannot be adequately protected by returning the child, with or without supervision. Before a temporary placement in society care, it must consider whether placing the child with a relative or a member of the child's extended family or community is in the child's best interests.

What to do next

• Write down every date on your papers, including the deadline for your answer and plan of care.
• Gather documents that show how you care for your child, and a list of relatives or community members who could help.
• Ask the society in writing what it proposes and why.
• Speak with a lawyer early, because the timetable leaves little room to catch up.
• Keep attending every court date, and keep contact with the society respectful and documented.

Frequently asked questions