Who is a father on a birth certificate?

Quebec court sides with man who cared for boy

MONTREAL • Quebec’s highest court has ruled that a man listed as the father of a young Quebec boy will remain on his birth certificate over the objections of another man who later emerged as the child’s biological father.

In a split ruling, two Quebec Court of Appeal justices maintained a lower court ruling that the man who’d cared for the boy since his birth should be legally recognized as his father. However, a third justice dissented, saying she would have recognized the blood ties of the biological dad and allowed his request to have his name put on the certificate.

The case stems from a complicated love triangle in small-town Quebec. In order to protect the identity of the child, none of the parties are named in the judgment.

The boy’s mother was in a relationship with the man legally recognized as his father while carrying on an affair with the biological dad. She became pregnant and gave birth in spring 2015.

The cheating came to light a few months after the birth and the couple split in August 2015, agreeing to joint custody of the boy.

Around this time, she also renewed her relationship with the biological dad. Beginning to see a resemblance between her son and his other children, the mother asked him to undergo a DNA test. It was confirmed in September 2015 he was indeed the boy’s biological father.

He began taking care of the boy while he was in his mother’s care and the couple split in 2016.

Meanwhile, the man now listed legally as the father only discovered the deception and the DNA results in early 2017. Despite the results, he continued to consider the toddler as his son.

In the ruling last week, two of the three justices wrote that parentage must be based on those who behave as parents as opposed to a traditional definition.

“The preservation of the stability of the family environment and, above all, of children are at stake,” Justice Simon Ruel wrote. “This model is obviously not without its flaws, but it provides a clear and objective basis for resolving conflicts of parentage.”

Ruel, writing for the majority, noted the man listed as the father was known to everyone as such, with the child carrying his family name and there being an uninterrupted lineage for 22 months before legal proceedings began. The high court found the biological dad did not establish the same link.

“The law allows for the recognition of a legal father for the child, thus offering the child a stability in his filiation,” Ruel wrote.