Man fined, ordered to pay court costs

SYDNEY — A Sydney man who dared to think he could ignore a court order has been fined $1,000 and ordered to pay court costs of $4,000.

The fine was imposed after the man was found guilty on two counts of contempt of court and given a conditional discharge. He was given 60 days in which to pay after which his discharge would be made absolute meaning he will not have a criminal record.

The penalty was issued this week by Justice Lee Anne Macleod-archer of the Supreme Court family division who initially found the man guilty after a trial in November 2019. Sentencing was delayed by measures implemented by the court to deal with the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

The man was found guilty of failing to adhere to a parenting schedule and failing to ensure his three children were named as irrevocable beneficiaries on his life insurance. The man has since complied with the order.

The Cape Breton Post is withholding the name of the man in a bid to protect the identity of the children.

The contempt charges flow from another family court decision by another judge — in March 2019 — that ordered the man to abide by the schedule and make the designation for beneficiaries, among other things.

However, that decision was appealed to the Court of Appeal which ruled in January that the presiding judge misapprehended some on the evidence and ordered the case back to trial before a different judge.

It was the man's former partner who filed the contempt allegation arguing there was no error identified by the appeal court preventing him from fulfilling his obligations. Further, she argued that her husband should have been made to follow the order until the appeal court decision.

The man claimed he was acting in the best interest of his children and that it would be an error to hold him to the order when the appeal court overturned the decision.

In her decision, Macleodarcher noted that the man made no application for a stay of the order pending appeal and that he said he shouldn't be expected to comply with the order because it was overturned on appeal.

In reviewing the law dealing with such cases, Macleod-archer referred to an Ontario Court of Appeal decision, upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada, stating “the law is clear that an order of the court, however wrong, must be obeyed until it is reversed or varied.”

“The reasoning behind this is important. Canada is a country governed by the rule of law. That means that people must obey the law. People can't just decide what laws they like and which they don't and which they'll comply with. That includes court orders,” she said.

Judges at all levels of court in Sydney routinely remind individuals that court orders are to be obeyed whether issued for probation, release, sentence or peace bond.

Individuals are told that a court order is not a request or a suggestion but an order that, when disobeyed, can result in jail time, additional charges or loss of property and cash posted for bail.