The boom in Arrtificial Intelligence ("AI") and its expansion into professional and personal life confirms the prescience and lucididty of J. Krishnamurti's 1981 inquiry relating to the computer's impact on humanity.  Will we  continue to rely on a culture of fear, illusion, compulsion, acquistion, clinging, addiction, separation and distraction? Or, will we learn to pay attention to our personal and collective suffering, confusion, contradictions, disorder, conflict, judgment, comparison and interior life?  Will social media, phones and screens be more important than ourselves?  Will we lose our autonomy and devolve in to even more mechanistic behaviours and ways of living?  Will our creativity be replaced by machines?  Will we become delusional and ignorant dullards as a result of endlessly distracting ourselves?  Will cognition, critical thinking, analysis and attention decline even more than they have in the age of social media and algorithmic bubbles?  Or can A.I. and automation provide us with the opportunity to look into ourselves more deeply to discover who we really are?  Can we discover the meaning of love, compassion, joy, beauty, understanding, and the courage to bring an ending to fear and confusion?

A recent study published in Applied Cognitive Psychology found that social isolation during pandemic lockdowns causes a decline in cognitive function.  The authors recommend taking this into consideration when imposing "pandemic related restrictive conditions" and recommend introducing "strategies to alleviate cognitive decline."

The Supreme Court of Canada continues to improve a child's right to support upon the dissolution of marriage or common law spouses.  In ​Colucci v. Colucci, 2021 SCC 24 Justice Martin, for a unanimous Court, set out the factors a Court must consider on a retroactive reduction.  He stated that three interests must be considered to achieve a just result:

          1.  The child's interest in receiving the support to which they are entitled;
          2.  The parties' interest in certainty and predictability; and
          3.  The interest in securing a fair support calculation in light of the payor's income.

Justice Martin reiterated the firmly established rule that full and frank disclosure of income information by the payor is the very root of the child support framework and an essential part of good faith negotiation.  He confirmed a strict presumption against reducing arrears at all.  The presumption is rebutted only when the payor proves he will never be in a position to pay, even with a modest payment schedule.

Woods (Re), 2021 ONCA 190, confirms the right to an in-person hearing and the principle that video conferencing cannot be imposed on an accused except in limited circumstances.

For a unanimous Court of Appeal for Ontario, Tulloch delivering the judgment on behalf of Huscroft and Thorburn JJ.A., in obiter, stated  at para. 56 that:

Proceeding by video is [not] simply a "procedural irregularity"... the extent to which a video forum impacts an accused’s substantive and procedural rights [and]... the difference between an in-person hearing and a videoconference hearing [are not] insignificant... deviations from in-person hearings are more than mere procedural irregularities.

Important amendments to the Divorce Act and the Children's Law Reform Act come into force today. 

The main policy goals of these amendments are to advance the best interests of the child, speak to the serious problem of family violence, assist in reducing child poverty and to make the family system more user friendly and effective.

Of special importance is the introduction of a more concise framework for considering family violence in relation to decision making as well as the removal of the terms custody and access, which are replaced with decision making and parenting time.