Bank of Canada decides to hold policy rate at 5% in October. In a scheduled announcement on October 25, 2023, the Bank of Canada decided to maintain its target for the overnight lending rate at 5%. The Bank cited growing evidence of a slowdown in economic activity due to past interest rate increases, which were also helping to relieve inflation.

SMP Law has a long and rich history focusing on three specific areas of law – family law, estate law and civil law. We have developed extensive knowledge of law in these areas and have experienced great success in these areas of law. With the increase in family law cases, SMP Law has made the decision to shift our expertise to focusing on family law.

As the term “parental alienation” is gaining popularity in the court system, it is becoming more and more important to ensure that the term does not mask intimate partner violence (IPV). Unfortunately, the defense to a parental alienation allegation can sometimes be misused to draw attention away from IPV, with detrimental results for families and children experiencing IPV.

The term reunification therapy has become increasingly popular in family law cases. Reunification therapy is essentially a therapeutic process designed to rebuild and repair a relationship between a parent and a child, usually due to a form of alienation by the other parent.

The concept of “Alienation” has a grounds for reversing parenting rights has been receiving increasing attention over the last few years. As stated in SMP Law’s post on parental alienation “What is Alienation?"  a common theme of alienation is “a child is expressing extreme negative feelings about a parent that are not supported by their experiences”.