Department of Justice Canada

This Fact Sheet provides general information about spousal support under the Divorce Act. The Divorce Act applies to married couples who are divorcing. Provincial or territorial laws apply to unmarried or common-law couples that are separating and to married couples that are separating but not...

This resource provides insight on parenting agreements made after the new Divorce Act came into force on March 1, 2021.

Both parents have a legal obligation to support their children financially after separation or divorce. Children have a legal right to that support. Under the Federal Child Support Guidelines parents need to provide complete and up-to-date income information to ensure a fair amount of support....

This Fact Sheet provides general information about the 2017 update to the Federal Child Support Tables (Federal Tables). The Federal Tables are part of the Federal Child Support Guidelines (regulations under the Divorce Act). The Federal Tables are based on a mathematical formula that takes into...

Divorce and separation can be difficult, especially if you have children. You may feel stressed about the different decisions you need to make about parenting arrangements and financial issues. This document will give you some general information about different types of family dispute resolution...

Acting in the best interests of the child is the number one priority in all family law matters involving children. The new Divorce Act sets out duties for parents and others to help them act in the best interests of the child, including when courts are involved. Changes to the Divorce Act also...

This fact sheet provides information on family violence. Family violence occurs when a person abuses someone in their family. It can happen to anyone - both children and adults. Family violence can be words, acts or even not giving someone the care they need. It may be a single incident, or a...

This paper explores the issues that arise in child protection proceedings involving family violence, where there are concurrent family and/or criminal proceedings. A particular focus is on issues in concurrent proceedings in cases involving intimate partner violence, though there is some...

This report is intended to focus on best practices related to cases making their way through the criminal justice system, where there are multiple proceedings – including family law and/or child protection proceedings. The goal is to identify practices that promote the safety of all family...

The purpose of this report is to document, from a family law perspective, best practice options when domestic violence cases are making their way through multiple proceedings (criminal, civil, family, and child protection). The intention is to identify practices that can promote the safety of...

In January 2011, federal-provincial-territorial (FPT) Deputy Ministers responsible for Justice and Public Safety approved the creation of a joint family and criminal Ad Hoc Working Group on Family Violence to examine how the family, child protection, and criminal sectors of the justice system...

This Revised User’s Guide (which we sometimes call the “RUG”) updates and replaces the two previous versions: the original User’s Guide released in July 2008 with the Final Version of the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines (SSAG); and the New and Improved User’s Guide which we produced in March...

Legistics is a collection of terms commonly used in legislative decisions or legal documents. It is meant to provide meaning to terms used including notwithstanding, Gender-neutral language and others. Occasionally, due to the nature of a resource, it can only be made available in one of the two...

The Legal Aid Survey was a Statistics Canada annual survey on revenues, expenditures, personnel, and caseload statistics associated with the administration and delivery of legal aid in Canada. The Legal Aid Survey was first conducted in 1983–84 and data was last published in 2016 (for fiscal year...

The Canadian Victim Services Indicators (CVSI) survey was developed as part of a longer term project to improve information on the provision of victim services in Canada. In an effort to identify data opportunities that could be used to measure the impact of the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights...

Section 4.2 of the Department of Justice Act requires the Minister of Justice to prepare a Charter Statement for every government bill to help inform public and Parliamentary debate on government bills. One of the Minister of Justice’s most important responsibilities is to examine legislation for...

This report highlights some key findings of the 2018 National Family Law surveys of family law professionals in Canada. The data provide insights into the experiences, practices, and issues among legal professionals working in the Canadian family justice system. Since 1998, the Department of...

On November 29, 2021, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada introduced a bill to criminalize so-called conversion therapy practices in Canada. Conversion therapy is a practice that seeks to change an individual’s sexual orientation to heterosexual, to change an individual’s...

Section 4.2 of the Department of Justice Act requires the Minister of Justice to prepare a Charter Statement for every government bill to help inform public and Parliamentary debate on government bills. One of the Minister of Justice’s most important responsibilities is to examine legislation for...

Section 4.2 of the Department of Justice Act requires the Minister of Justice to prepare a Charter Statement for every government bill to help inform public and Parliamentary debate on government bills. One of the Minister of Justice’s most important responsibilities is to examine legislation for...