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LEGAL REPORT: FAMILY LAW behold, with a lot of joint custody, that's generating a new issue, which is mobility. People moving for jobs and marriages, and now all of a sudden you have two custodial parents, really." That dynamic has called for creativity in the way joint cus- tody is arranged, says Brown, and it's natural for technology to fill that void. Vancouver lawyer Alison Ouellet of Dunnaway Jackson Ouellet & Associates, who represented the mother in Gauvin, says judges often suggest the use of online videoconferencing when creating custody arrangements. But she has never seen a judge compel the use of such tools. She too sees online com- munication as a means of bridging the gap when great distances divide parent from child, but will never be enough to fully meet a child's needs. "It's incumbent upon the parent who moves and takes a child away from the other parent to keep contact with the non-resident parent as much as possible. It's certainly a tool that helps with that." Ontario Bar Association family law section chairwoman Georgina Carson agrees that online visitation should never replace in-person access, and should primarily be used to enhance communication between visits. She adds that many other online tools are now available to help parents manage their children's schedules with both of their parents, and sug- gests e-mail has helped many ex-spouses communicate with each other in a more productive, less combative manner. But she urges families involved in a split to tread lightly in the world of online communications. "I would say that e-mail and texting is double- edged," says Carson. "On the one hand, it's reducing in-person and telephone conflict. But the problem is, that 'send' button is just a little too easy to press. I think sometimes people can engage in an e-mail war that can heighten the combativeness of a separation." Meanwhile, Bala suggests Canadian courts have already accepted online com- munication as a means of mitigating a long-distance, parent-child relationship. "Having said that, I don't think that any- one, and certainly no judge would suggest, that electronic communication would replace visits, but it would supplement them. It might make a move that in the past would have been considered unac- ceptable perhaps acceptable now." Find the following cases online. ELC v. ESB: www.canlii. org/en/bc/bcsc/doc/2009/2009b csc1543/2009bcsc1543.html and Gauvin v. Gauvin: www.canlii.org/ en/bc/bcsc/doc/2009/2009bcsc12 61/2009bcsc1261.html. www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com M ARCH 2010 53 hildview_CL_Mar_10.indd 1 2/10/10 8:57:54 AM Email our partners at: sranot@marmerpenner.com jdebresser@marmerpenner.com Tel: (416) 961-5612 Fax: (416) 961-6158 2 Bloor Street West, Suite 2603, Toronto, ON M4W 3E2 armerPenner_CL_Mar_10.indd 1 2/17/10 10:10:57 AM