Definitions, Part III

18. (1) In this Part,

“court” means the Ontario Court of Justice, the Family Court or the Superior Court of Justice; (“tribunal”)

“extra-provincial order” means an order, or that part of an order, of an extra-provincial tribunal that grants to a person custody of or access to a child; (“ordonnance extraprovinciale”)

“extra-provincial tribunal” means a court or tribunal outside Ontario that has jurisdiction to grant to a person custody of or access to a child; (“tribunal extraprovincial”)

“separation agreement” means an agreement that is a valid separation agreement under Part IV of the Family Law Act. (“accord de séparation”) R.S.O. 1990, c. C.12, s. 18 (1); 1996, c. 25, s. 3 (2); 2001, c. 9, Sched. B, s. 4 (7, 8).

Child

(2) A reference in this Part to a child is a reference to the child while a minor. R.S.O. 1990, c. C.12, s. 18 (2).

Purposes, Part III

19. The purposes of this Part are,
(a) to ensure that applications to the courts in respect of custody of, incidents of custody of, access to and guardianship for children will be determined on the basis of the best interests of the children;

(b) to recognize that the concurrent exercise of jurisdiction by judicial tribunals of more than one province, territory or state in respect of the custody of the same child ought to be avoided, and to make provision so that the courts of Ontario will, unless there are exceptional circumstances, refrain from exercising or decline jurisdiction in cases where it is more appropriate for the matter to be determined by a tribunal having jurisdiction in another place with which the child has a closer connection;

(c) to discourage the abduction of children as an alternative to the determination of custody rights by due process; and

(d) to provide for the more effective enforcement of custody and access orders and for the recognition and enforcement of custody and access orders made outside Ontario. R.S.O. 1990, c. C.12, s. 19.