𝗩𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗗𝗶𝘃𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗖𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗱𝗮

The Ontario Court of Appeal determined a question on whether Canadian law recognizes an Islamic talaq divorce (a “bare talaq divorce”), performed in Ontario and subsequently registered with Egyptian governmental agencies.

A bare talaq divorce arises from the husband’s unilateral and exclusive right to dissolve the marriage through a “private recital of verbal formula”.

Courts have declined to recognize bare talaq divorces as effective; without some form of adjudicative or official oversight, they are regarded as “manifestly contrary to public policy”.

A “bare, unilateral talaq” divorce is invalid but where it is later registered with governmental agencies, it is a presumptively valid foreign divorce under s. 22(3) of the Divorce Act.

In the Court of Appeal’s view, the motion judge erred in law in failing to distinguish between the granting and the registering of a divorce. In the circumstances of this case, registering the divorce with the Egyptian Embassy, the Civil Affairs Registry and the Ministry of Justice in Egypt amounted to no more than the evidentiary attestation of the respondent’s unilateral pronouncement of a bare talaq.

In accordance with the conflict of laws and common law principles, the registered bare talaq divorce was not recognized as a valid divorce under s. 22(3) of the Divorce Act since the parties had no real and substantial connection to Egypt at the time of the divorce.

The case law 𝘈𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘩𝘢𝘮 𝘷. 𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰, 2022 𝘖𝘕𝘊𝘈 874 (𝘊𝘢𝘯𝘓𝘐𝘐) is free and available for public access on CanLII.

𝗥𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝗹𝗮𝘄 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿.

𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘦: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘴 𝘢 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘣𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳. 𝘓𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦, 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘪𝘳𝘤𝘶𝘮𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦.