What are the reasons for getting a divorce in Quebec?

On what grounds will a court render a divorce judgment?

In this article, that’s exactly what we will cover.

• The Divorce Act
• First divorce reason: Separation over twelve months
• Second divorce reason: Adultery
• Third divorce reason: Physical or mental cruelty
• Is a divorce reason better than another?
• Article 8 of the Divorce Act on divorce grounds
• Takeaways

The Divorce Act

The institution of divorce is founded upon a federal law titled the “Divorce Act”.

The Divorce Act is a federal law applicable across the entire Canadian territory. 

The Divorce Act defines a series of rules and procedures governing the divorce process starting from the Court competence all the way to defining individual rights and obligations of married couples getting a divorce. 

The Divorce Act states that a divorce may be granted when there is a ‘breakdown of the marriage’. 

So the reason for divorce fundamentally will require the evidence of a breakdown of the marriage.

The breakdown of the marriage occurs when:

1. You have been separated from your spouse for at least one year
2. Your spouse has performed an act of adultery
3. Your spouse has treated you with physical and/or mental cruelty

You will need to establish at least one or more of these grounds for the court to be able to render a divorce judgment in your case. 

First divorce reason: Separation over twelve months 

The first ground you can invoke to get a divorce is separation for over twelve months.

If you are invoking the separation of twelve months as the ground for your divorce, you have the option of filing your divorce application, settlement agreement and supporting documents jointly and amicably with your spouse.

You can ultimately get a divorce judgment without having to testify in Court. 

In this scenario, the Court will render a divorce judgment based on the documents you’ve submitted.

Once the judgment is rendered, the court will send it to you by mail. 

What does it mean living separate and apart for over twelve months?

Many believe that separation means they must live at a different address for over twelve months.

Although this is a valid scenario for invoking this divorce reason, in some circumstances the court can consider you to be separated even though you’ve been living in the same address.

If you have formulated a definitive and irreversible intention to separate from your spouse for over twelve months, although you may have been living in the same house or have the same address, the court can consider you as separated. 

If you provide sufficient evidence to the Court to support your claim, a judge may accept your claim of being separated for over twelve months although living at the same address. 

Second divorce reason: Adultery 

The second divorce reason is to invoke that the other spouse has committed an act of adultery that you have not forgiven. 

If you are invoking adultery or mental and/or physical cruelty, you will need to present evidence establishing that your spouse has committed adultery and that you have not condoned such acts. 

In this scenario, the Court will need to hear your case.

You will need to call your witnesses and offer your own testimony in court to establish the grounds of your divorce.  

For adultery to be invoked in court, you must establish that your spouse has had a sexual relationship with another person and that you have not condoned this act. 

Dating someone or casually seeing someone without having a sexual relationship will not qualify as adultery in the “legal” sense of the word although this act may be morally reprehensible.  

Third divorce reason: Physical or mental cruelty 

The third reason for divorce is physical and mental cruelty.

To prove that there was physical or mental cruelty, you must demonstrate to the Court that there was an act of physical or mental cruelty resulting in psychological harm.

As a victim of these acts, you can no longer tolerate staying in the marital relationship.  

For physical cruelty to be established, you will need to demonstrate a physical action has been committed to you resulting in a physical prejudice.

Because of these acts, you can no longer stay in the marriage or continue your relationship with your spouse.

The victim will seek to get divorced so as to end the physical cruelty suffered at the hands of his or her spouse.  

The question of mental cruelty will require the court to analyze the circumstances more subjectively as mental harm or abuse is not lived the same way by everyone. 

Each individual can feel harassed, humiliated or psychologically abused in different ways. 

The judge will have to analyze the specifics of your case in order to reach the conclusion that the actions of alleged mental cruelty did reach a threshold that the victim was mentally attacked.  

Is a divorce reason better than another? 

In the Canadian legal system, the divorce grounds will not result in any particular advantage in the treatment of the divorce file by the judge.

Once the divorce ground is established, the judge will analyze the division of the assets, the establishment of custody and child support, the establishment of spousal support and so on based on the merits of each of these individual divorce components.  

The Canadian divorce system does not penalize a spouse or does not give specific advantages to another spouse based on the martial faults or acts committed by a spouse.

In some cases, the court will consider the actions of your spouse.

If you have proven the divorce ground of physical cruelty and demonstrated that your spouse has physically abused you, then, the court will certainly consider such acts if the Court is asked to render a judgment on custody arrangements. 

The spouse that has acted with physical cruelty will not automatically be considered to be a bad parent and lose custody of his or her children. 

The Court will have the difficult task of evaluating the circumstances of the case and determine if that spouse has the necessary abilities to have custody over his or her children and if he or she represents a danger or risk of harm for the children. 

Article 8 of the Divorce Act on divorce grounds

So you can see how the law formulates the three reasons for divorce, we refer to Article 8 of the Divorce Act where the law sets out the reasons:

• 8(1) A court of competent jurisdiction may, on application by either or both spouses, grant a divorce to the spouse or spouses on the ground that there has been a breakdown of their marriage.
• Breakdown of marriage
  
  (2) Breakdown of a marriage is established only if
  • (a) the spouses have lived separate and apart for at least one year immediately preceding the determination of the divorce proceeding and were living separate and apart at the commencement of the proceeding; or
  • (b) the spouse against whom the divorce proceeding is brought has, since celebration of the marriage,
    • (i) committed adultery, or
    • (ii) treated the other spouse with physical or mental cruelty of such a kind as to render intolerable the continued cohabitation of the spouses.

For a court in Quebec or in Canada to render a divorce judgment, you’ll need to find into one of these three reasons.

Takeaways

In this article, we’ve looked at the three reasons you can invoke in Canada to get a divorce.

No matter which province you live in, the Divorce Act applies to all provinces the same way, including in Quebec.

The three reasons for divorce are:

1. Separation for over twelve months
2. Adultery
3. Physical and mental cruelty 

We hope this article helped you better understand the divorce grounds in Quebec.

Should you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact our experienced divorce lawyers to help you.

In the meantime, we wish you the best of luck!