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www.canadianlawyermag.com 35 KEY COVID FAMILY LAW CASES June 9, 2020 Tarkowski v. Lemieux, 2020 ONCJ 280 — Jones J. May 12, 2020 McMurray v. McMurray, 2020 ONSC 2949 — Sproat J. March 24, 2020 Ribeiro v. Wright, 2020 CarswellOnt 4090 (S.C.J.) — Pazaratz J. March 20, 2020 C.Y. v. F.R., 2020 CarswellOnt 4105 (S.C.J.) — Diamond J. a child should attend school in light of COVID-19 or if a non-custodial parent's house is safe, increased domestic violence and an anticipated spike in divorce rates and restricted entry to Canada for cross-border couples have been just a few of the issues that have raised their heads since the novel coro- navirus became a global health risk earlier this year. In late May, Ontario's Superior Court staff shared that about 45 per cent of their urgent cases were family-law related, says Laurie Pawlitza, a partner at Torkin Manes LLP in Toronto. "It's a sad event," says Julie Hannaford, pres- ident of the family law boutique J K Hannaford Barristers in Toronto. "The people [whose] marriages are strained, who don't have the resources, adequate housing, who are crowded, who are food insecure and who are marginal- ized . . . that's the swath of the population that's being affected worst by COVID-19." The incidence of domestic violence, asso- ciated with an increase in the use of alcohol and drugs and the closed quarters necessi- tated by the pandemic, has risen, along with divorce rates.