Child of Divorce and travel to Canada

[Aanubis]

Good Day,

My Fiance would like to come and visit me in Canada with her 8 year old son. The joint custody arrangement shows she has custody from July 17th to the 27th. She wants to come and visit from the 17th to the 21st. Her ex-husband doesnt like it and he is threatening to call the police if she goes even though she has provided him with her 4 day itinerary. Her son has a passport and all the travel has been booked. He agreed to the travel verbally over a month ago and then changed his mind.

He keeps telling her she needs written permission and he refuses to provide it.

I cant see how he can stop her from going with her son if the agreement they have from the courts says she has her son during that time.

If you go by the Hague Convention...

Article 3
The removal or the retention of a child is to be considered wrongful where

(a) it is in breach of rights of custody attributed to a person, an institution or any other body, either jointly or alone, under the law of the State in which the child was habitually resident immediately before the removal or retention; and
(b) at the time of removal or retention those rights were actually exercised, either jointly or alone, or would have been so exercised but for the removal or retention.

The rights of custody mentioned in sub-paragraph (a) above, may arise in particular by operation of law or by reason of a judicial or administrative decision, or by reason of an agreement having legal effect under the law of that State.
Article 13

Notwithstanding the provisions of the preceding Article, the judicial or administrative authority of the requested State is not bound to order the return of the child if the person, institution or other body which opposes its return establishes that:

(a) the person, institution or other body having the care of the person of the child was not actually exercising the custody rights at the time of removal or retention, or had consented to or subsequently acquiesced in the removal or retention;

From what I gather of 3(b) and Article 13 (a) he doesn't have the right of access during that time.

Any advice is appreciated!

[tbyte]

We are heading down to Mexico, and the customs officials REQUIRE a notarized statement by both parents granting permission for the children to leave the United States.
If the father refuses to sign, you could try filing a motion to force him to sign or get some sort of legal waiver from the court, but that would take a while.
Maybe your best strategy is to let him know that his child will know the reason he did not get to go on the exciting trip....

[Aanubis]

Thank you Tbyte for the information. She has contacted her attorney and he is going to do that. "Ex-Parte" or something of that nature. With only 11 days before we take the trip, it will be interesting to see if it will happen lol!

We have discussed this very thing. He is a sweet boy and even though the guy has been a royal arse, we can't bring ourselves to say something that may affect his feelings towards his dad. Kids really shouldnt have to deal with this sort of garbage...

Perhaps he needs to hear it though.

Some days I feel like I am living a RL soap opera hahaha!

Thanks again for your help!

Aan

[Aanubis]

You got that right! He is a major in the air force as well as a big control freak. Now that he doesn't have control over her directly, he seems to try anything he can to manipulate.

I never considered that thanks. I am going to mention that to her tommorow. Sooner or later, his son will figure it out but in the meantime, we can keep him from growing up too fast.

Much appreciated!

Aan

I think you may have misunderstood the poster's reference.

2bit=tbyte

[Aanubis]

I did misunderstand. Thanks for clarifying.

My appologies as no offense was intended to 2bit.

That definately changes the intent lol

Aan