Child Custody: The basics
Voluntary agreements, called parenting plans, are usually the best and most common way of settling custody arrangements in Ontario. Only a small percentage of child custody disputes are decided in a courtroom. Custody is the right to make the important decisions about the care and upbringing of a child. Custody normally includes the physical care, control and upbringing of the child. If one parent has custody of the child, the other parent usually has access, a right to spend time with the child. Access also includes a right to receive information about the child’s health, education, and welfare.
A parent can have sole custody, where one parent has custody and the other has access, or there can be a joint custody arrangement. Parents with joint custody share the rights and responsibilities of custody and both have a right to make decisions about the child. Joint custody requires a lot of cooperation between parents and works best when parents agree on how to bring up the child. Courts are reluctant to order joint custody unless the judge believes that the parents will be able to work together.
If you are able to work things out together, you can put all your arrangements for your child(ren) in a parenting plan. This parenting plan can include everything about who will spend time with the child(ren) and when and who will make major decisions about the child(ren). The parenting plan can either be an informal arrangement or can be detailed in a separation agreement.

When child custody cases actually reach the court, a judge will consider a variety of factors, depending upon the evidence that the parties present. The focus is on the “best interests of the child” in determining with whom your child will reside and who will make decisions about the child. The conditions, means and needs of the children are all taken into account in making this order.
The court has the power to award joint custody or to give sole custody to one party with access privileges to the other. In actual practice, however, Ontario judges very rarely award joint custody. The reason for this may well be a judicial unwillingness to believe that parents who are in court fighting over custody will be able to cooperate about everything regarding the child. Joint custody in the sense of equal time-sharing and equal decision-making ability would require the greatest amount of cooperation between parents. Thus, the most common custodial arrangement ordered by a judge will be sole custody to one parent with the child having access with the other parent. The willingness of each parent to work with the other parent and facilitate access is an important factor the court will consider in making a determination.
It is very rare for a non-custodial parent not to be allowed access to their child. If the judge is persuaded, however, that a child may come to some harm or danger if access is not monitored, the judge can order that visitation be supervised. Supervised visitation sometimes occur in the visiting parent’s home. The supervisor in such a location might be another relative, a family friend or even a social worker. Supervised visitation might occur in an even more protected setting such as the offices of a physician or mental health professional. If visitation begins as supervised visitation, the order may provide for a phase-out of supervision once the suspect parent has proven him- or herself to be more reliable or consistent around the child.