Restraining Orders in Ontario: Emergency Legal Protection for Chinese Families Facing Domestic Violence

If you are in immediate danger, call 911.
24-hour domestic violence crisis line (multilingual, including Mandarin and Cantonese): Assaulted Women’s Helpline 1‑866‑863‑0511.
This article is general legal information, not advice on any specific matter. For your case, consult a licensed lawyer.

In my years of practising family law, there is one type of client whose story weighs on me the most. They do not walk into my office to file for divorce. They walk in to stop something.

To stop him from showing up at the door. To stop him from waiting outside the child’s school. To stop the 2 a.m. calls.

The legal tool for “stopping something” is called a Restraining Order.

Many of my Chinese-Canadian clients hesitate when they first hear the term. Isn’t that making it a big deal? Do I have to call the police? I don’t want things to blow up.

I understand the hesitation. In many Chinese family cultures, the fear of “making it public” can outweigh the fear of the violence itself. But let me be direct: a Restraining Order is not “making it public.” It is a door. When the door is closed, the other person cannot enter. When the door is not closed, you will not know which visit will be the last one.

What this article explains

This article explains four things:

• What a Restraining Order is in Ontario, and what it can and cannot do
• Who can apply, and what evidence you need
• How to initiate an Urgent Motion
• Enforcement, breaches, and follow-up litigation strategy

At the end, I include five notes written specifically for Chinese-Canadian families — immigration concerns, children, evidence preservation, what to do if you are the one being served with a restraining order, and whether “cold violence” and financial control count.

---

1. What a Restraining Order Is in Ontario

In Ontario, a Restraining Order is a civil order issued by the Family Court under s. 46 of the Family Law Act or s. 35 of the Children’s Law Reform Act. Its purpose: to restrict one person from approaching another person or their children.

It is distinct from several things often confused with it:

• Peace Bond — a criminal-court instrument, narrower scope, usually initiated with police involvement
• No-Contact Order — typically a bail condition attached to a criminal charge
• Emergency Protection Order — this term is not used in Ontario (it exists in other provinces)
• s. 810 Recognizance / Peace Bond (Criminal Code) — another criminal instrument

A Restraining Order is purely civil. This means you do not need the other party to be criminally charged first. You do not need police involvement. You initiate it yourself in Family Court.

For many Chinese-Canadian clients, this matters enormously. I have had clients say, I don’t want to call the police. A criminal record would affect his work, his visa, how our child feels about their father later.

I don’t judge that decision — that is your family’s choice. But you should know: if you choose not to pursue the criminal path, a Restraining Order is still available to you as an independent civil tool. No police, no Crown prosecutor, no criminal record required.

What a Restraining Order can order

Depending on the facts, a court may order that the other person:

• Not contact you directly or indirectly (phone, text, WeChat, email, or through third parties)
• Stay a specified distance from your home, workplace, children’s school, or other locations you frequent (typically 100–500 metres)
• Not follow, harass, or communicate with you
• In cases involving the matrimonial home, vacate the residence (Exclusive Possession of Matrimonial Home)
• Maintain interim parenting arrangements for your children
• In urgent circumstances, orders freezing accounts or preventing asset dissipation can be sought in parallel

The criminal consequence of breach

Once the Restraining Order is issued and served, breaching the order is itself a criminal offence. The breaching party can be arrested and charged with Breach of Court Order or Criminal Contempt, with a maximum penalty of up to two years’ imprisonment.

In other words: a Restraining Order, though issued in civil proceedings, has criminal enforcement teeth. This is what makes it a fundamentally different tool than a “warning” or a “cease and desist letter.”

---

2. Who Can Apply, and What Evidence Is Required

Who can apply

Under s. 46 of the Family Law Act, the following persons may apply:

• Current or former spouses
• Common-law partners (regardless of cohabitation length)
• The other parent of your child
• Persons in a close personal relationship with you

Critically, you do not need to be married, separated, or have started divorce proceedings. Either party in an intimate relationship can apply independently.

If children are involved, a parallel application under s. 35 of the Children’s Law Reform Act can seek protective orders for the children.

What evidence is required

The legal standard for a Restraining Order is:

The applicant has reasonable grounds to fear for their own safety or the safety of any child in their lawful custody.

Note the language carefully: you do not have to prove that serious harm has already occurred. You have to show a reasonable fear. This is a deliberately low threshold — the legislature set it this way so that protection can intervene before serious harm, not after.

Evidence that can support the application includes:

• Medical records, police reports, and injury documentation of prior physical violence
• Threatening text messages, WeChat messages, voicemails, emails (preserve both screenshots and original files; on the admissibility of electronic evidence in Ontario family court, see: WeChat, Bank Screenshots & Recordings as Evidence in Ontario Family Court)
• Security camera and doorbell footage
• Witness statements (neighbours, teachers, friends)
• Social media threats or posts
• The respondent’s prior criminal record, if any
• Your own sworn Affidavit — this is central, and I discuss it below

You do not need every category. Even your own Affidavit plus a handful of threatening messages is often enough to meet the “reasonable fear” standard.

---

3. Urgent Motions: Protection in 24–72 Hours

If circumstances are urgent — a recent violent incident, an imminent threat, or you need the other party removed from the home — you can bring an Urgent Motion, asking the court to prioritize your hearing ahead of regular scheduling.

Two forms of urgent motion

1. On-Notice Urgent Motion

• The other side receives notice and can respond
• Typically heard within 1–2 weeks
• Suitable when the matter is urgent but not same-day critical

2. Without-Notice / Ex Parte Motion

• The other side is not notified in advance
• The judge hears only the applicant
• Typically decided within 24–72 hours
• Available only in extreme circumstances — where giving notice would itself create danger, or where the respondent would destroy evidence / flee with the children / dissipate assets

An ex parte order is always temporary — usually around 14 days — after which a full on-notice hearing must occur. This is not a loophole; it is a procedural mechanism for genuine emergencies.

Documents required

Two core documents:

• Notice of Motion — specifying the orders sought
• Affidavit — your sworn written evidence to the court, the single most important document

How the Affidavit is written will often determine the outcome of the motion. Some guidance I give my clients:

• Write chronologically — no jumping around, no emotional summaries; “On [date], this happened, he said X, I did Y.”
• Be specific — “He hit me” is weak; “He struck my left cheek with his right palm, knocking my glasses onto the sofa; the bruise lasted five days” is strong.
• Attach evidence as exhibits — screenshots, recordings, medical records as Exhibit A, B, C, etc.
• Avoid speculation about his motives — state only what you saw, heard, and experienced.
• Avoid character attacks — the judge cares about events, not about your view of his personality.

If you have never written an Affidavit, do not do it alone. A poorly structured, emotional, detail-light Affidavit can be grounds for the judge to dismiss the motion. This document should be drafted with a lawyer.

---

4. After the Order: Enforcement, Breach, and Next Steps

What to do once the order is made

• Obtain the sealed original from the court
• Serve it on the respondent — service must be done by a third party, not you personally (typically by lawyer’s office, a bailiff, or a professional process server)
• File a copy with your local police station — police need this on file to act on any breach
• Keep multiple copies — on your phone, in your bag, at work
• Notify your child’s school, your workplace reception, and your building concierge — so that staff know who is not permitted on premises

If the respondent breaches the order

Call 911 immediately. Do not call your lawyer first. Do not try to reason with the respondent. Do not delete evidence of the breach.

If police attend and confirm a breach of the Restraining Order, they have the authority to arrest on the spot. Breach of a court order is an independently chargeable criminal offence.

I tell clients: every breach, every time — record it. Date, time, what occurred, witnesses, any recording. Not every breach results in immediate arrest (officers have some discretion), but your records become evidence for extending the order, strengthening its terms, or pursuing criminal charges later.

Follow-up strategy: not just a piece of paper

Many clients think that once the Restraining Order is in hand, everything is solved. It is not. In practice, a Restraining Order is usually one phase in a broader strategy. It typically needs to be paired with:

• Concurrent or subsequent separation / divorce proceedings — the Restraining Order only creates distance; the underlying relationship must still be resolved through a separation agreement or divorce (see: Separation vs. Divorce in Canada: Key Legal Differences)
• A Preservation Order — to prevent the respondent from transferring, concealing, or dissipating joint assets during the litigation (see: What Happens If Your Spouse Wastes or Hides Assets During a Divorce?)
• An Interim Parenting Order — if there are children, a temporary custody arrangement must be structured alongside the restraining order
• Exclusive Possession of the Matrimonial Home — a separate order requiring the respondent to vacate (on the legal nature of the matrimonial home and property division rules, see: Understanding Net Family Property (NFP) in Ontario)
• Interim Spousal / Child Support — if you are financially dependent, temporary support must be applied for quickly (see: Spousal Support and Child Support in Ontario: How Are They Calculated?)

These five are a package, not a menu. A Restraining Order by itself may leave the respondent in control of the house, the bank accounts, and your children’s whereabouts. A complete protection plan coordinates all of them.

---

5. Five Notes Specifically for Chinese-Canadian Families

Based on years of representing Chinese-Canadian clients, here are things that general legal resources rarely cover but that matter enormously in this community.

5.1 Immigration: Will calling the police or filing a Restraining Order affect my PR or visa?

For the victim: No. Your PR status, citizenship application, or sponsorship process will not be harmed by applying for a Restraining Order. Canadian immigration law in fact contains specific protections for victims of family violence — even if you entered Canada through spousal sponsorship, your sponsor’s threats to “withdraw sponsorship” do not mean you immediately lose status.

For the respondent: Possibly. If the respondent is a PR rather than a citizen, a serious criminal conviction for domestic violence could have immigration consequences. But this flows from criminal conviction, not from your civil Restraining Order application directly.

For case-specific immigration advice, consult an immigration lawyer in parallel.

5.2 What about the children?

In a domestic violence context, courts apply several principles:

• The best interests of the child is the sole standard (see: Child Custody and Parenting Time in Ontario: A Practical Guide)
• The existence of family violence is a weighted factor in custody and access decisions
• If the respondent has been violent or threatening toward the child, the court may order no contact or supervised access only
• You do not have to wait until final judgment to protect your children — an Interim Parenting Order can be sought on motion

Important warning: Do not unilaterally take the children out of Ontario, especially not back to China. Even with justification, removing a child without the other parent’s consent or a court order may constitute parental abduction, and will severely prejudice your position in subsequent custody litigation (for the legal pathway to recover a child taken to China, see: My Child Has Been Taken to China: What Can I Do?). The correct route is through an emergency motion, asking the court to grant you interim custody and to restrain the other party.

5.3 “Cold violence” and financial control — without physical abuse, does the law still apply?

Yes.

Ontario family law defines family violence broadly. It is not limited to physical assault. The following all fall within the definition for Restraining Order purposes:

• Sustained verbal threats, insults, intimidation
• Financial control (withholding access to money, controlling all spending, threatening financial cutoff)
• Restriction of liberty (preventing you from leaving the house, confiscating your passport, isolating you from family and friends)
• Stalking and surveillance (installing monitoring, reading your phone, tracking your movements)
• Persistent harassment (late-night calls, mass texting, messages through third parties)

This cluster of behaviours is often called coercive control in Canadian family law scholarship, and it has received increasing judicial recognition.

Evidentiarily, non-physical violence is harder to prove. But it is not impossible — preserved text messages, voice recordings, witness statements from family or friends, unusual financial patterns, photographs of confiscated passports, all can combine into a coercive-control evidence record.

5.4 What if you are the one being served with a Restraining Order?

This happens too. Sometimes through false allegation, sometimes in situations where both parties have contributed but the other moved first.

Regardless of the reason, do not ignore the court documents.

• Retain counsel immediately — you have the right to respond, but within strict deadlines (typically 14 days)
• Comply with every term of the order, even ones you consider unreasonable — breaching the order is itself a criminal offence, regardless of the merits of the underlying order
• Do not contact the other party to “explain yourself” — any contact can itself constitute a breach
• Gather your counter-evidence if the other party’s statements are false or exaggerated
• Preserve your own records — genuine communications, witnesses, etc.

At the return hearing, you may:

• Apply to vary the order’s terms
• Apply to set aside the order entirely
• Accept the order and bring your own cross-claims

5.5 Costs and legal aid

The Restraining Order application itself does not require court filing fees (urgent family-law procedures are generally fee-waived), but legal fees are real.

• An urgent motion typically costs between CAD $3,000 and $8,000, depending on complexity (for a full breakdown of family law legal fees in Ontario, see: How to Choose the Best Chinese Divorce Lawyer in Toronto)
• If you cannot afford a lawyer, apply to Legal Aid Ontario (1-800-668-8258) — domestic violence matters are among their priority categories
• Some legal clinics offer free domestic violence legal services
• The Assaulted Women’s Helpline can refer you to appropriate free legal resources

---

6. If you are reading this right now

If you close this page and remember only one thing —

You do not have to wait until “it gets bad enough” to seek legal protection.

The legal standard for a Restraining Order is reasonable fear. Not life-threatening violence. Not hospitalization. Reasonable fear.

If, while reading this article, there was a moment when you thought this might be me — that moment itself is a reasonable signal.

---

Frequently asked questions

Q1: We are not married, only cohabiting. Can I apply for a Restraining Order?

Yes. Section 46 of the Family Law Act expressly covers current and former cohabiting partners, regardless of the length of cohabitation. If you have children together, protection can extend to the children.

Q2: We were married in China. Does a Canadian Restraining Order still apply?

Yes. Because you reside in Ontario, the Ontario Family Court has jurisdiction, regardless of where the marriage was registered. A Canadian Restraining Order is enforceable throughout Canada.

Q3: Will applying for a Restraining Order make the respondent more angry and more dangerous?

This is a legitimate concern. International empirical research shows that the initial weeks after an order is issued are among the highest-risk periods. That is why:

• Applications are typically paired with a Safety Plan — relocating to an address the respondent does not know, notifying schools and workplaces, varying routines
• In severe cases, a without-notice emergency motion allows the respondent to be served without advance warning
• Coordination with women’s shelters can provide safe emergency accommodation

These are elements a lawyer and a domestic-violence social worker can plan with you.

Q4: My child witnessed the violence. Does that affect custody decisions?

Yes. Even where the child was not directly assaulted, exposure to a domestic-violence environment is, in Canadian family law, considered harm to the child. It will be taken seriously in custody determinations, and may lead to restrictions on the respondent’s access rights or to supervised access only.

Q5: How long is a Restraining Order valid?

Emergency orders are typically around 14 days, followed by a full hearing. Post-hearing orders can be time-limited (6 months, 1 year, 2 years) or indefinite (until further order of the court). Based on ongoing safety needs, orders can be extended before expiry.

---

If you need help right now

• Emergency: 911
• Assaulted Women’s Helpline (24/7, multilingual): 1‑866‑863‑0511
• Legal Aid Ontario: 1-800-668-8258
• Assaulted Women’s Helpline TTY (hearing impaired): 1-866-863-7868
• Fem’aide (French): 1-877-336-2433

---

About the author

Miao He (何淼) is a family lawyer dual-licensed in Ontario and China. Law Society of Ontario licence number: #83315K. She has represented clients in complex family-law matters including high-conflict litigation, cross-border asset disputes, and urgent motions. Her reported decisions include Yang v. Li, 2024 ONSC 4801 and Li v. Jiang, 2026 ONSC 561, both publicly available on CanLII.

Office: Markham (serving the Greater Toronto Area). Mandarin and English. For consultation: 647-930-6688 or miao@miaohelaw.ca.

Initial consultation: 30 minutes, CAD $220 + HST. Priority scheduling may be available for urgent domestic-violence matters.