In family law, custody refers to the legal relationship between a parent and his or her child, including the parent’s right to make decisions on behalf of the child and the parent’s duty to care for the child and look after the child’s best interests.
In Ontario, custody is governed by the Children’s Law Reform Act.* Under the Act, in the absence of a court order or a separation agreement, the father and the mother are equally entitled equally to custody of the javascript:;child.
If the parents separate, the parent living with the child will have the rights of the custodial parent, while the custodial rights of the parent not living with the child becomes suspended until a separation agreement or court order provides otherwise.
*R.S.O. 1990, c. C.12
Note: Please keep in mind that this article is provided for information and educational purposes. It does not constitute legal advice and should not be regarded as such. The law may have changed since the publication of the article.
I would like to add a few points !
Custody refers to who has legal decision-making authority in the life of a child. The decision-making authority is usually in regard to major life issues such as religion, education, health and activities.
Typically in two-parent, intact families, parents share decision-making authority. The decision making process between co-habiting parents may reflect mutual input and a consensus model or a distribution of responsibilities where one parent takes a primary role with respect to making decisions and the other parent, generally in agreement and trusting with the decisions, takes a secondary role. Still in other families and depending on the actual issue to be decided, parents may alternate between a mutual-consensus model and a primary-secondary model.
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