Shared Parenting in Canada: Increasing Use But Continued Controversy

There is a complex interplay between federal and provincial parenting statutes in Canada. Although most statutes continue to use the traditional concepts of “custody” and “access,” in practice most lawyers and judges use more child‐focused terminology for parenting plans. There is a lack of reliable data on postseparation parenting in Canada, though a number of studies and data sources clearly indicate that there is growing use of various forms of shared parenting. Child support law in Canada defines “shared custody,” as occurring if each parent has the child at least 40% of the time, and this arrangement currently is used in about a fifth of parenting orders. Reform of the parenting‐related provisions of Canada's Divorce Act remains contentious. We argue for statutory change to abandon the archaic terminology of “custody” and “access” and for adoption of more child‐focused terminology. We do not support proposals made by fathers’ rights advocates in Canada for a presumption of equal parenting time. Key points for the Family Court Community: Although most Canadian statutes continue to use “custody” and “access” terminology, in practice lawyers and judges are often using more child‐focused concepts, such as parenting time and parental responsibility. There have been great changes over the past thirty years in postseparation patterns of parenting in Canada: only a minority of cases now involve the traditional “custody to mother and access to the father” arrangement, with some form of shared parenting (shared custody or joint legal custody) now being the most common arrangement. About one in five postseparation parenting arrangements in Canada involve “shared custody” (where children spend at least 40% of their time with each parent), with about half of these involving roughly equal time. The prevalence of different types of parenting arrangements varies markedly by province, with shared custody being more common in provinces where there has been legislative reform. Research from Canada suggests that in this country shared parenting is more likely to be the result of negotiated arrangements than court orders. Shared custody imposed by courts occurs more often when parental conflict is lower and children are younger. Shared custody also appears to be related to parenting roles during cohabitation, as well as higher parental income. Qualitative Canadian studies suggest that in a significant portion of cases, shared custody is often not a durable arrangement, bu