B.C. judge orders second mother declared a third parent to child of polyamorous trio

CBC 26 April 2021
‘Gap’ in provincial law prevented woman from being recognized as mother, court says

A British Columbia Supreme Court judge has ordered that all three members of a polyamorous “triad” should be registered as parents of the two-and-a-half-year-old boy they are raising together as a family.

In a decision released Monday, Justice Sandra Wilkinson said a “gap” in the provincial law dealing with parentage of children prevented a woman known as Olivia from being legally recognized as the mother of the child she considers her son.

Olivia has been in a romantic relationship with Bill and Eliza since 2016, two years before Eliza gave birth to Clarke, the baby fathered by Bill. The parties have been anonymized by an order of the court.

But because Clarke was conceived through sexual intercourse, B.C.’s Family Law Act left no room on his birth certificate for anyone but a birth mother and a “presumed” biological father.

“I find that there is a gap in the [Family Law Act] with regard to children conceived through sexual intercourse who have more than two parents,” Wilkinson wrote.

“The evidence indicates that the legislature did not foresee the possibility a child might be conceived through sexual intercourse and have more than two parents. Put bluntly, the legislature did not contemplate polyamorous families.”
READ MORE: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/polyamorous-parents-birth-certificate-judge-1.6002991?inf_contact_key=74b65ac3cff27d52f7741cdd9a8535104dfbc39d7283b2cb89d5189540b69330

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