Divorce Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. 3 (2nd Supp.))

Marginal note:Divorce

• 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.

• Marginal note: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.

• Marginal note:Calculation of period of separation

  (3) For the purposes of paragraph (2)(a),

  • (a) spouses shall be deemed to have lived separate and apart for any period during which they lived apart and either of them had the intention to live separate and apart from the other; and

  • (b) a period during which spouses have lived separate and apart shall not be considered to have been interrupted or terminated

    • (i) by reason only that either spouse has become incapable of forming or having an intention to continue to live separate and apart or of continuing to live separate and apart of the spouse’s own volition, if it appears to the court that the separation would probably have continued if the spouse had not become so incapable, or

    • (ii) by reason only that the spouses have resumed cohabitation during a period of, or periods totalling, not more than ninety days with reconciliation as its primary purpose.