Variation of custody orders

Today’s Court of Appeal decision in Elliott v. Turcotte, 2009 ONCA 240 provides a clear restatement of when a custody order may be varied:

[10]          In Gordon v. Goertz, [(1996), 134 D.L.R. (4^th) 321 (S.C.C.)] the Supreme Court of Canada set out a two-stage test for any application to vary a custody order.  At the first stage, the parent applying to vary must demonstrate a material change in the circumstances affecting the child that was not foreseen or reasonably foreseeable at the time of the original order.  If this threshold requirement is met, the second stage of the inquiry deals with the best interests of the child.  The court must conduct a full inquiry into all of the benefits and detriments of the proposed variation and determine whether it would be in the child’s best interests.