Justice committee  There are two elements. First, I just want to clarify the fact that it is not the department that proposed this. We proposed different options to be considered. Above all, we took into account the current wording of the act. It is important to see how, in section 17 of the Divorc

Justice committee  The divorce side usually does say that the court “may” make an order. We agree with that. Again, this is what we had to work with. I think there were some discussions.

Justice committee  As I said, the Divorce Act usually says the court “may” make an order. It would be problematic to change “shall” to “may“ here, because there could be an issue as to whether the court may make an order that is in the best interest. We would have to clarify that the court may make

Justice committee  In such a situation, what the provision would do is get to the second part, which is what kind of order the court will make more quickly. So instead of having to reach the threshold of a material change in circumstance that requires evidence before the court, and before the court

Justice committee  As I said, it's very hard to predict the impact. I think it clarifies what a deemed change in circumstance is, and the second part simply confirms the discretion of the court to make the best decision in the child's best interests.

Justice committee  Can you repeat the first part of the question, please?

Justice committee  Unfortunately, I cannot speak to what the court would do. We presented evidence on Monday that there has been case law where the courts have considered a terminal illness to be a change in circumstance.

Justice committee  But the question was whether any court might not, and unfortunately, I can't answer that.

Justice committee  Yes, they definitely have.

Justice committee  Not that we're aware of.

Justice committee  It will not, necessarily, with respect to how the court makes an order and its exercise of discretion. It can provide more direction with respect to what a change in circumstance is.

Justice committee  The case law hasn't deemed it to be a change in circumstance in all cases, and this is what it would do here.

Justice committee  That's correct. In determining the best interests of the child, the court can certainly consider the terminal illness of a parent and whether that's relevant to the interest of the child.

Justice committee  Can I just clarify? Are you talking about the whole provision?

Justice committee  In terms of the impact it's going to have on the law, I think that's to be determined. There is certainly a policy consideration for the committee in terms of whether this is necessary. But as I said, coming back to the impact legally, as we said before, the court already has the