CASE RECORD / 2026
2026 · Appeal Quashed Before the Merits Hearing
[Insert appeal summary summary paragraph here providing an overview of the quashing and the jurisdictional context.]
Who was involved
• Melanie
• Adam
• Zaria
• Court of Appeal for Ontario Justices Roberts, Dawe, and Wilson
• Earlier Court of Appeal judges Gomery, Huscroft, and Rouleau JJ.A
What happened
Melanie appealed the June 16, 2025 trial judgment and related orders.
The Court of Appeal:
• accepted and opened the appeal;
• heard earlier motions and urgent relief;
• accepted the appellate materials and filing fees;
• confirmed the appeal as perfected; and
• scheduled a full merits hearing for June 29, 2026.
A jurisdiction issue was later raised concerning whether the appeal properly belonged in the Court of Appeal or the Divisional Court.
Melanie did not ask the Court to ignore jurisdiction.
She asked that, if another court was the proper forum:
• the appeal be transferred under s. 110 of the Courts of Justice Act;
• the existing filing date and perfected record be preserved;
• the substantial work, transcription, filing, and expense already completed not be lost; and
• the matter proceed promptly in the proper court.
On June 5, 2026, the Court of Appeal:
• determined that the appeal lay to the Divisional Court;
• declined to transfer it under s. 110; and
• quashed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction.
The scheduled June 29, 2026 merits hearing never occurred.
Why it matters
The trial judgment was never examined through the full appellate hearing that had already been scheduled.
The result:
• ended a perfected appeal rather than routing it forward;
• discarded the benefit of the appellate process already completed;
• required further proceedings to preserve or restore review elsewhere;
• increased expense after more than $20,000 had already been spent on transcripts, filing, and preparation; and
• created further delay while Zaria remained separated from her mom.
Section 110 gave the Court discretion to transfer a proceeding commenced in the wrong court and allow it to continue in the proper court.
That was the remedy Melanie requested.
The panel declined to use it without analysis.
The issue is therefore not whether the appeal had been filed in the correct court.
The issue is why a correctable routing problem resulted in quashing rather than transfer and preservation in a time-sensitive child case.
“LITTLE CHANCE OF SUCCESS” — WITHOUT A MERITS HEARING
The June 5 panel used the phrase “little chance of success” while deciding whether to transfer the appeal - again without analysis.
It was not a judgment following a merits hearing.
The full appeal was scheduled to be heard on June 29, 2026.
That hearing never occurred.
The June 5 characterization also stands in tension with three earlier Court of Appeal rulings:
• Gomery J.A. reviewed the stated appeal grounds on the emergency stay motion and found that they were “not frivolous.”
• Huscroft J.A. granted an extension to perfect and held that Zaria’s best interests were not a basis for depriving Melanie of her right of appeal at that stage.
• Rouleau J.A. applied an extension test that expressly included the merits and stated: “I am not prepared to say the appeal is without merit.”
The record therefore established, before the June 5 decision, that:
• the grounds were not frivolous;
• the right of appeal had been preserved; and
• a Court of Appeal judge who expressly considered the merits was not prepared to find the appeal without merit.
The June 5 panel did not explain how those earlier findings became “little chance of success” without the scheduled merits hearing ever taking place.
The distinction matters.
Why delay matters
Delay is not neutral.
It protects the result under challenge.
Every month without merits review:
• keeps Zaria separated from her mom under an order that has never received full appellate scrutiny;
• allows the parent given unilateral control over contact to keep benefiting from that control;
• creates distance from the decisions and records that produced the separation; and
• rewards obstruction by allowing time to achieve what the evidence and law may not support.
The full institutional sequence matters:
• CAS verified sexual harm, then changed the outcome through a closed process without identified new evidence;
• an “alienation” narrative displaced the abuse record and reframed protection as harm;
• the court imposed the most severe parenting remedy without a dependable mother-child schedule;
• police enforced the removal despite Zaria’s fear, resistance, and stated wishes;
• the agreed reintegration framework disappeared from the operative result;
• access pathways failed while responsibility moved between Adam, service providers, courts, and institutions; and
• the perfected appeal was quashed rather than transferred before its scheduled merits hearing.
Each institution can describe its part as a separate decision, procedural issue, policy barrier, or exercise of discretion but together, the result is unmistakable:
Zaria disclosed abuse.
CAS verified it.
The verification was weakened.
Her protective relationship was branded “alienation.”
She was forcibly removed.
Contact was left under Adam’s control.
Appellate review was stopped before the merits were heard.
Delay does more than postpone an answer.
It manufactures permanence.
The records allow viewers to decide whether this reflects coincidence, institutional self-protection, coordinated avoidance of scrutiny and accountability, or something more serious.
Evidence and records
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What happened next
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