Emergency motion

[fireweb13]

Hi all again, been a long time since I posted.
Coles notes- Mom lives in Hamilton, I live near Barrie. Joint legal custody with 50/50 in the summer and EOW through school year.
Myself-Married and have held job and so on and have a house and been with my wife for 8 year.
Ex is Married but both a constantly unemployed and move regularly.
without going through the nitty gritty of the past. This is the most recent stuff and I am very concerned for my daughters safety but not positive it is strong enough for am emergency motion. I have gotta much conflicting advice.

In February my ex's husband was fired. Shortly after my ex was fired from her Job. They have been going downhill steadily since. On fathers day my ex refused to do her part of the driving, and her husband told me if I did not drive for them I would be "F'ed in more ways than one" We had family friends drive our daughter home as they live much closer and they wanted to help. My ex requested that they leave our 10 year old with a security guard at her husbands parents condo as they could not be there for 45 minutes. They said no and another family member came instead of the security guard.

Next time we were to pick our daughter up, my wife went as I was at work. To make a long story short, our daughter was not there but police and the landlord and my ex were. The landlord spoke to my wife and told her some of the things that were happening and that they were going to be evicted. After some running around my wife picked our daughter up. Our daughter confided in me that her mom and step dad argue daily and that her mom is being hit by her step dad. That her step dad has gone as far as to pour a beer over her moms head while her mom was driving. Her step dad drinks from breakfast until bed time and she is afraid of him.
I reported this to childrens aid and they interviewed our daughter and believed she was a credible witness but said that they are not at a point of of taking the children away, but that I could apply for an emergency motion as that is how you go about it. Since childrens aid was doing an active investigation and our daughter was only at her moms a few days, I decided to let her go home. On Friday when I was supposed to pick up our daughter my ex told me that they have "meetings" all weekend and I cannot pick her up. I spoke with childrens aid and they went over, and my ex told them that I wasn't supposed to have her that Friday.
Yesterday I got ahold of the landlord (he lives behind them with his wife in the same house) they fear for their lives and have given me more evidence on the promise that I do not use it until they are evicted because they fear that they will be hurt. Evidence such as unfilled prescriptions for bi-polar medication and letters from my ex to her husband begging him to stop drinking. My ex and her husband throw all their garbage outside the house is dollarama bags, and raccoons open them so the landlords have to clean their garbage up and that is how they find stuff. The landlords car has also been egged and a knife has been left on their mailbox. Most of the other stuff is minor but the landlords do fear for their safety. Childrens aid and the landlords will be speaking to each other Monday.
I was also informed by my ex that our daughter does not want to come to see me anymore, and that they have made a video of her retracting her statements that she made to myself and childrens aid and have said that I forced her to say those things.
I just do not know what to do. I have my paperwork all done and want to protect my baby. she is 10 and Childrens aid says that she needs councilling ASAP as she has dealt with alot of trauma at her moms house.

Do I have a leg to stand on? I have tried contacting lawyers this weekend but have not had luck. I have conflicting advice from other people and lawyers about weather it is worth me doing this. I just feel like I have to do it to get her out.

Thank you and sorry for the long rant.

[Berner_Faith]

So if I am understanding your post correctly...

Your daughter is watching almost daily abuse, your ex-wife is being abused, the landlord is terrified of her tenants, they let their garbage fly all over the place, CAS is involved but doesn't think there is enough evidence to remove the child?

I don't know how an emergency motion would work if CAS isn't concerned enough to remove the child and place her into your care. I would assume what is happening isn't as horrible as you are making it sound if CAS isn't concerned. I also can't see CAS saying "we can't remove the child but try an emergency motion"

If they are getting evicted, I would maybe motion to have primary residency signed over to you, as you provide a stable environment for the child. Just make sure you have a valid argument because if Mom shows that CAS had no issues, you may lose.

[fireweb13]

Thank you for the reply. The information from the landlord beyond his initial conversation with my wife is all very fresh. The CAS has not had time to speak to the landlord yet as it was all found out on Friday after the office was closed. I am hoping that the new denial of access Friday helps because she is going against a court order directly after the start of a CAS case started. I agree that it seems wierd for CAS to say that about an emergency motion, but they keep saying that unless the child is in immediate life threatening danger they cannot do anything, and that if I fear for her safety I need to bring an emergency motion to have her out of the house. We have been dealing with workers on vacation and talking to many different people so it has been hard. We are hoping to get a lawyer tomorrow in the Mothers area and see whats up.

[arabian]

I live in an apartment building where there is a large garbage bin. People are inherently lazy and sometimes the garbage bags don't hit the bin and critters get into things. I don't know anyone who stops and takes the time to dig through trash to actually read it. For this reason I doubt the credibility of the landlord's statement. If the landlords feel children's safety is an issue then why have they not contacted the police?

You are in an unfortunate situation because it seems that you have been embroiled in a high-octane relationship with your ex. Any calls to CAS are justifiably being handled cautiously, probably due to your case history.

Your daughter is not a toddler and can use a telephone and call 911. Encourage her to do just that if she is witness to any future violence in the home. Aside from that I believe that attempts at an emergency motion would likely end up in judge waiting for outcome of the child services' investigation.

From the outside looking in this appears to be a situation of you finding out dirt on your ex and extrapolating family violence to further your child custody claim.

[stripes]

It will be difficult for you to make the case to a judge that you need an emergency motion to take custody of your daughter, if CAS is already involved and they have deemed that it is not enough of an emergency to justify removing the child from her usual residence.

Bear in mind that CAS' job isn't just to pull children out of families - they investigate and they work with families to help them stay together. Removing children is a last resort. That is probably what is going on here. Legal maneuverings from you will just add stress to this process.

I suspect that what CAS told you was that you could file an emergency motion, not that you should. This is true - anyone can file an emergency motion tomorrow for full custody of a kid, but that doesn't mean it would be a good idea. You could offer to take Kid temporarily if Mom and Stepdad get evicted - that would be a helpful thing to do which wouldn't involve more court battles.

As other posters have pointed out, you seem to have a history of legal battles with Mom and attempts to get primary residence with Kid, going back several years. I would suggest shifting your focus to how you can support Kid during this period, not how you can get her away from Mom.

[Links17]

What does the child want?
How old is the child?

[tdog]

Do what you need to to get your daughter out of that situation. I didn't act quick enough and mine was molested for over a year by her step dad. Talk to a lawyer ASAP and don't give up.