Tracing the Grounds for Divorce: A Feminist Critique of Canadian Family Law

<p dir="ltr">This paper traces the law governing the grounds for divorce in Canada. Beginning with early colonial divorce law, through the introduction of the federal Divorce Act in 1968, to the current legislation and 2021 amendments, I trace the evolution through a feminist legal theory lens. In doing so, I consider the implications of removing the fault paradigm without replacing it with legislative responses to gender-based concerns, specifically the feminisation of poverty and intimate partner violence. I suggest that the remnants of the matrimonial offences theory need to be removed from the 1985 Divorce Act in order to move towards a family law regime capable of accounting for the feminisation of disadvantage.</p>