A father left behind his life in Whitehorse, Yukon and remained in British Columbia for more than a year while he fought for the opportunity to raise his infant son.
In 2025, ALMA lawyer, Jasmin Kang, represented a father in a highly contested guardianship trial in British Columbia involving his infant son.
The case was unusual from the very beginning.
This was not a dispute between two parents. It was a dispute between a father and extended family members who sought to become the child’s guardians and primary caregivers, cancelling the guardianship of both biological parents.
Complicating matters further, the child’s biological mother largely supported the applicants’ position and their request to assume guardianship and primary care of the child.
By the time the matter reached trial, the child had spent virtually his entire life in British Columbia with the applicants. The father, meanwhile, had left behind the life he had built in Whitehorse and remained in British Columbia awaiting trial and fighting for the opportunity to raise his son.
The stakes could not have been higher.
The Court itself recognized that the outcome would determine whether the child would continue living with the applicants in British Columbia or return to Whitehorse with his father. It was not simply a dispute about parenting time. It was a decision about who would raise the child and where he would call home.
The applicants sought extraordinary relief. They asked the Court to cancel the guardianship of both biological parents, appoint them as guardians, grant them all parental responsibilities, and deny the father parenting time altogether.
The father sought something much simpler.
The opportunity to raise his son.
The trial spanned multiple days and involved extensive evidence regarding the child’s care, medical needs, relationships, and future. The Court heard from numerous witnesses and was required to determine what arrangement would best serve the child’s interests.
For the father, the case was about far more than legal rights.
It was about whether he would be given the opportunity to raise his son.
For more than a year, he remained in British Columbia while the litigation unfolded. He attended court appearances, exercised the parenting time available to him, and continued building a relationship with his son despite the uncertainty surrounding the proceedings.
Throughout the trial, the father presented a vision for what life would look like if his son returned home with him to Whitehorse. It was not a vision of raising a child alone. Evidence was led regarding the family and community support available to him in Yukon. One witness summarized it simply:
“Mr. Gwiazda has a village to support him and [his child].”
After considering all of the evidence, the Court found that the father was a guardian of the child under the Family Law Act. The Court declined to appoint the applicants as guardians, granted the father parental responsibilities, ordered that the child transition into his father’s primary care, and authorized the child’s return to Whitehorse, Yukon.
For the father, the decision represented far more than a legal victory.
In the end, he was given the chance he had been seeking from the beginning:
The chance to raise his son.
Family law cases often involve difficult questions. Few are more difficult than deciding who will raise a child. Cases like this serve as a reminder that the Court’s task is not to determine who wants a child more, or even who loves a child more.
The task is to determine what arrangement is truly in that child’s best interests.
For Jasmin, this was one of those cases that serves as a reminder of why family law matters. Behind every application, affidavit, and court appearance is a family whose future depends on the outcome.
Sometimes, that future turns on a single question:
Who will be there for the moments that matter most?