Canadian Man Seeks to Avoid Penalty for Blocking Religious Divorce

Last month I posted Canada to Enforce Premarital Agreements Crossing into Religious Issues.

In that case, the Canadian Supreme Court ordered a man to pay his ex-wife nearly $50,ooo for making her wait 15 years for a religious divorce – in violation of their prenuptial agreement.

The Canadian high Court based its ruling both on the contract and a Canadian statute that penalizes spouses who hold up religious divorces.

Now the ex-husband is seeking an appeal to challenge the statute as interfering with freedom of religion and as being discriminatory, because he argues that it targets Jews.

It is anticipated that the Canadian Supreme Court will decline to hear the appeal, possibly because the ruling was supported on contract grounds independent of the challenged statute.

Read more in this Montreal Gazette article: Man challenges divorce law.

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