We’re often asked if there are any court cases where parental alienation was recognized by the judge. 

A recent newspaper article out of Toronto reports that during the past two months alone, an Ontario Superior Court judge and a British Columbia Supreme Court judge ruled in both cases that the parent who embarked on a “campaign of vengefulness” toward the other parent must relinquish any custodial or visitation rights of his or her child for at least a period of about one year.

In the British Columbia case, which wrapped up last week, Justice Donna Martinson ruled that the mother had been “resourceful, highly manipulative, and untruthful” and upheld the court’s previous decision to grant sole custody to the targeted father. According to court documents, the mother “undermined” the child’s relationship with her therapist, breached an earlier court order by sneaking inappropriate messages to the child through a birthday card, taunted the child with pictures of the dog she left behind upon moving in with her father, and accused the father of abuse – as many alienating parents do.

And in the Ontario case, the judge recommended the targeted parent and his daughter attend a four-day Dallas-based Family Workshop in Parental Alienation that some opponents liken to a “deprogramming” centre.

The paper further reported that between 1987 and January 31, 2009, there have been roughly 74 cases in which Canada’s courts acknowledged parental alienation in its decision, according to research presented at the International Conference of Parental Alienation by Gene Colman, a Toronto lawyer.