Child Abduction Legal Information

After Abduction Checklist

• Report your child to the police “missing person” department and provide the child’s name and description
• Ask the police to put the child on CPIC (Canadian Police Information Centre computer system) and also the United States National Crime Information Centre (NCIC) computer system
• Register the abduction with Missing Children’s Society of Canada but make sure your lawyer is involved in this process
• Contact a lawyer to secure sole custody with a prohibition that your child not be removed from the jurisdiction if you have not already done so
• Have the child’s name entered in the Canadian Passport Control System with a prohibition on the issuance of a Canadian passport to your child from anywhere.
• List the addresses and telephone numbers of relatives, friends and business associates of the abductor, here and abroad.
• Information on the other parent regarding passport number, driver’s license number, social security and bank accounts.
• Written record of child such as height, weight, hair colour, eye colour, special physical characteristics, colour photo taken within six months.
• In your court order, also seek a provision to enable the Canadian Passport Office to refuse to issue a passport to the child.
• If the child is a dual national, ask the foreign embassy not to issue the child a foreign passport by providing your sole custody order to them.
• Contact your child’s school as the abductor may try to access school records and provide the school with your custody order
• Have your local enforcement agency obtain a search warrant or subpoena to access credit card information on the abductor to determine where purchases are being made and in the same manner telephone records of friends and relatives the abductor may have contacted.
• File Hague Application with the Central Authority (this is usually a provincial attorney general’s department).

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If the Abductor has left the Country:

• Check employment records, if abductor had a car, check with police to confirm, the make, model and license plate number
• Have police check immigration, customs or airport records
• Check airline manifests
• Check credit and banking information (large withdrawals, cash advances, plane tickets purchased or credit card transactions
• Check abductor’s mail (phone records may show ultimate destination)
• Contact Missing Children’s Registry of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The Missing Children’s Registry can suggest publication of your situation in an Interpol Circular.
• Following a request from your local police, customs officers can immediately have a border alert distributed to member countries of the International Customs Union. The Missing Children’s Registry of the RCMP can be helpful here as it is associated with the global police network Interpol, which will assist any Canadian Police Agency in coordinating investigations abroad
• Contact International Social Services Canada, an Ottawa based private agency with international connections to social service agencies in many other countries. I.S.S.C. is currently headed by Agnes Cassellman, a very energetic and committed individual. This agency will assist in whatever way it can to resolve international custody disputes by means of mediation, negotiation, contact with child protection agencies or lobbying central authorities to take action
• Media – can be helpful or harmful. It is recommended that you discuss any publicity with the police, your lawyer and Consular Affairs Bureau of the Canadian Government
• Ask the Canadian Consular Affairs Bureau to initiate a welfare and whereabouts search for your child overseas; contact your child’s doctor advising of theabduction and that the doctor inform you should he or she be contacted by the abducting parent seeking medical records
• Secure a valid a passport in case you need to travel overseas.
• Contact the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (“DFAIT”)

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