Case study



Winnipeg Child and Family Services (Northwest Area) v. D.F.G., [1997] 3 S.C.R. 925

The name and level of court that rendered the decision in the case

Winnipeg Child and Family Services (Northwest Area) v. D.F.G., [1997] 3 S.C.R. 925

Torts -- Negligence -- Duty of care --Mother and unborn child -- Pregnant mother addicted to glue sniffing -- Superior court judge ordering detention and treatment of mother to prevent harm to unborn child --Whether law of tort should be extended to permit order -- Whether appropriate for court to change law of tort.

Courts -- Jurisdiction -- Parens patriae -- Pregnant mother addicted to glue sniffing -- Superior court judge ordering detention and treatment of mother to prevent harm to unborn child -- Whether parens patriae jurisdiction should be extended to protect unborn child  Whether appropriate for court to change law of parens patriae.

The name of the judge or judges writing the majority decision

Mclachlin J: a judge of the Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench.

The facts of the case

In August 1996, the person was five months with child with her fourth child. She was obsessed to glue sniffing, which may impairment the nervous system of the evolving fetus. As a result of her addiction, two of her previous young children were born lastingly disabled and are enduring wards of the state. On a shift by the appellant, a superior court referee organised that the respondent be put in the custody of the Director of Child and Family Services and detained in a wellbeing centre for remedy until the birth of her child. One of the grounds for the alignment was the court's parens patriae jurisdiction. The alignment was subsequent stayed and finally set aside on appeal.The superior court referee, while accepting that the courts have not ever exercised this power representing an unborn progeny, saw no reason why the power should not be expanded to defend unborn children. The Court of Appeal held that the existing regulation of tort and of parens patriae did not support the alignment and, granted the adversity and complexity entailed in expanding the regulation to allow such an alignment, the task was more befitting for the legislature than the courts. (Manitoba, 1997)

To continue the regulation of tort to allow an alignment for the detention and remedy of a with child woman for the purpose of stopping damage to the unborn progeny would need foremost changes, engaging lesson choices and conflicts between basic interests and rights. Recognition of a fetal activity against the mother for lifestyle choices would sway women, who might find themselves incarcerated and treated against their will for perform supposed to damage the fetus. The proposed changes to the regulation have convoluted ramifications impossible for a court to completely assess, giving rise to the hazard that the proposed alignment might impede the aim of wholesome infants more than it would encourage it. Taken simultaneously, the changes to the regulation of tort that would be needed to support the alignment at issue are of such magnitude, consequence, ...