CANADA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Ian Hull, Suzana Popovic-Montag and Nick Esterbauer, Hull & Hull LLP
ship. Depending on the surrounding circumstances, a surviving partner who maintained a separate resi - dence may be considered a spouse and qualify for dependant’s support. Intestate succession and common - law spouses There also appears to be a trend in Canada when a jurisdiction updates its wills and estates legislation to permit common-law spouses to share in the estate of their deceased partners on intestacy. While the law has not been updated as such in every jurisdiction in Canada, several provinces and territories – includ - ing Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatch - ewan, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut – have extended intestacy rights to qualifying unmarried partners. In 2023, New Brunswick’s Department of Justice and Public Safety also recommended that New Brunswick’s legislation be updated so that the intestacy regime permits common-law spouses to inherit in substantially the same manner as married spouses. As of yet, however, the legislation has not been updated. The recognition of multiple spouses The evolving recognition of common-law relation - ships has also given rise to a related issue: wheth - er a deceased person can leave behind more than one spouse. Recent decisions in Ontario and British Columbia confirm that if a deceased person main - tained more than one spousal relationship simultane - ously prior to their death, multiples spouses may be recognised. For example, in Blair v Allair Estate , 2011 CarswellOnt 263 (SCJ), the Ontario Superior Court of Justice rec - ognised on an application for dependant’s support that the deceased had maintained concurrent spousal relationships. More recently, in Nikitina v Huynh , 2025 ONSC 690, the deceased was married, and another woman with whom he had a long-term extramarital relationship applied to the court for dependant’s sup - port from his estate. Although the applicant was ulti - mately found not to be the deceased’s common-law spouse, the court confirmed that Ontario’s Succes - sion Law Reform Act, RSO 1990, c S.26, does not preclude the recognition of multiple spouses.
In Ramadan v Coupal Estate , 2025 BCSC 1194, the British Columbia Supreme Court held that the appli - cant and the deceased had been in a marriage-like relationship for years prior to his death, even though the deceased had also been married to someone else for five years of that period. In another case, Boughton v Widner Estate , 2021 BCSC 325, the court recog - nised that the estate of the deceased, who had died intestate, had to be shared between the deceased’s lawfully married spouse and his common-law spouse, as both relationships were ongoing when he passed away. Taken together, these decisions suggest that courts may order an estate to support multiple spouses simultaneously if the deceased maintained multiple spousal relationships concurrently. Children for whom the deceased stood in the place of a parent Modern Canadian families may include children who are neither biologically related to their parent figure nor legally adopted by them. While such children generally will not inherit from the parent figure’s estate should the parent pass away intestate, the deceased’s estate can be ordered to provide support in some jurisdic - tions if the deceased voluntarily assumed the respon - sibilities of a parent prior to their death. The legislative schemes in Ontario and Manitoba both utilise this approach. Under Ontario’s Succession Law Reform Act, a “child” includes a person whom the deceased demonstrated a settled intention to treat as a child of their family, whereas Manitoba’s Dependants Relief Act, CCSM c D37, permits chil - dren for whom the deceased stood in loco parentis at the time of death to seek dependant’s support, with the exception of a child placed in a foster home for valuable consideration. In these jurisdictions, it appears that dependant support could be sought by the deceased’s stepchildren and the children of the deceased’s former partner, to provide a few examples. Demonstrating a settled intention to stand in the place of a parent In Ontario, factors to be considered when determining whether a person demonstrates a “settled intention”
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