Gurpreet Singh is fed up with the legal system’s failure to protect families and shares her story to expose its flaws and show the relentless fight she faces as a mother.

 

Singh has ADHD and depression but was misdiagnosed with just depression as research from the National Library of Medicine states many women are. Only this past August did she get diagnosed through the Adult ADHD Centre in British Columbia.

 

She has been taking medication for it throughout her marriage, trying to heal as she raised and worked on her family but sensed something was wrong. Out of self-preservation, she began documenting everything to protect her children, fearing she could otherwise end up severely injured, institutionalized and/or dead.

 

She had no intuition that a separation was coming following years of emotional abuse and a physical assault that culminated in criminal charges against him in 2025. However, during the honeymoon phase of her marriage, she didn’t think much of it when her ex husband’s brother, who was their realtor, set up the house and mortgage to be under his parents’ name. The understanding was if they got divorced, the home would be their matrimonial property, the only place where her two young boys have ever called home.

 

“I realized the brother and the lawyer he chose essentially committed fraud,” Singh said. “When I asked for money to pay bills, he psychologically threatened me, ‘Let’s go to court. Whose name is on the deed? Who do you think they’re going to believe?’”

 

After this, Singh was served what she says was illegal paperwork in February, which delayed family court proceedings. The court found both parties’ behavior troubling. Although the hearing was meant to address an emergency issue regarding the children, her ex-husband’s lawyer tried to use it to push for full financial disclosure, spousal support, her pension, and to force the sale of the home under the Partition Act.

 

Family court was only accepting emergency child safety matters, which this qualified for. Still his lawyer tried to push other issues and was denied. The judge ended up assisting his lawyer, who improperly served her legal documents by leaving them with a tenant while she was at work. Her emotional pleas and her children’s claims, including that their father drove with open alcohol were ignored. Despite her lawyer’s repeated attempts to set up mediation, they were dismissed.

 

Eventually, Singh’s ex-husband sent her an offer mainly to protect his brother from a potential investigation by the Real Estate Council of Ontario. She declined the offer, which he only made after she stated in court that the house would not be sold.

 

“As a mother who always made him take Ubers, how could I have missed this?” she said. The prospect of her children dying while being driven by their father who was under the influence or heavily addicted to substances, kept her up every night.

 

“I remember being on the phone talking to the operator on the non-emergency number and she said, ‘It’s better he rips into them literally, like vocally and gets mad at them instead of killing them.’ At that moment I just had a realization but I was still terrified,” she said.

 

She commenced the legal process for the urgent safety risk to her children in April of 2025, which was ignored by the courts who instead favoured his application for spousal support and home ownership. When the legal process began against her, Singh was presented a legal letter stating that she made up these allegations post-separation to garner an unfair advantage in the proceeding and that her ex husband does not drink and drive and is not being charged.

 

“I’m a woman who’s so educated, who married a college dropout who accepted that everyone said he was such a nice guy. Even though he had $44,000 in Visa and MasterCard receipts for the LCBO and The Beer Store, and the last two years from marijuana dispensaries, nobody listened to me,” she said.

 

Additionally, the family mediation was cancelled for June 30th and had to resume the intake process after the conditions, asking for Singh’s consent for Peel CAS’ input.

 

Singh replied back saying if they were going to be contacted after telling them how hard they had made things for her and her boys, essentially enabling their father, she wanted them to contact Peel Police’s Intimate Partner Violence team. However, no follow up has occurred since, displaying more systemic issues.

 

Thankfully Singh’s lawyer, Oyeyinka Oyelowo, proposed a counter offer a month after their separation for childcare access and parenting time, as Singh worked hard her whole life and was tired of always having to be resilient. Her main focus remained her children, all she truly cared about.

 

To ensure the safety of Singh, one condition specifically stated her ex-husband must stay 400 metres away from her.

 

Her former partner was only focused on property stating he was prepared to move into a vacant bachelor studio in Singh’s house, knowing she had to rent it out to ensure her children and herself would have supplementary income to pay for the mortgage for the home and wouldn’t be homeless. The financial abuse of Singh was further exacerbated when his lawyer asked her to pay legal costs for in-person court appearances when she repeatedly requested online court appearances because he had been charged with physically assaulting her, and she wanted to protect her safety. 

 

Oyelowo, founder and lawyer of Yinka Law, said she’s seen similar cases before although not with a cost award against a victim of assault and noticed a pattern where her female clients face egregious scrutiny in family court, especially around finances, credibility and issues of safety or gender-based violence.

 

“As her legal representative, I have the capacity to file a motion for all costs to be removed or to provide legal documentation. This judge is very adamant that she should be paying for her ex-husband who assaulted her, having to appear in court and her not being able to be in the same room as him,” she said.

 

“It shows that the court has a deference that is not to side with survivors of domestic violence, but a deference that may be actually aligned with the individuals perpetuating the violence under a premise that they’re somehow winners or the violence was vindicated in some capacity,” Oyelowo said.

 

“The actual endorsement by the judge is very alarming because it shows a lack of knowledge about the nature of how gender-based violence is quite invasive in regards to building healthy families and abiding by the best interests of the children,” she said.

 

Oyelowo said that knowing the strength of law, filing motions, appearing at hearings and filing documents, the overarching viewpoint that it would even be acceptable to be supportive of someone who’s admittedly assaulted another party in that way is just very disturbing and draws parallels to Keira’s law. Singh simply requested an online hearing because her ex-partner was charged with assaulting her as of June of 2025.

 

Singh’s medical provider first contacted Peel Children’s Aid Society (CAS) in 2024, the worker came there and instead of talking to the children about more than just what makes them happy and sad, she spoke to their father who said he doesn’t drink and drive and that all she can do is tell him not to do it.

 

“If something happens to my kids I have nothing to fight for. I don’t care about this house at that point. And then she said, ‘When they closed the file,’ … I forced her to call my kids back and investigate the allegations they were called about,” Singh said.

 

“I cried my eyes out. I said it’s too late. I’ve lost my kids. I don’t know what I’m going to do. They want the old, unhealed version of me to swear at them and to yell at them and to cuss them out so they have something but I’m not giving it to them,” she said.

 

In February of 2025 , Singh was illegally served paperwork from her ex-husband’s lawyer claiming that he and his family members own 75 per cent of the matrimonial home.

 

No one seemed to care about the safety risk to Singh’s children, not even government organizations mandated to.

 

“I told CAS that I had $44,000 worth of Visa and MasterCard statements,” showing her abusive partner’s reliance on alcohol. “I got everything in hand but CAS didn’t want to see it,” she said.

 

Singh was issued an emergency case conference based on child safety and was told in court that neither her ex’s file or hers was stronger and her mental health was weaponized against her several times in the system.

 

“And to have those accusations of him driving with open beer and then for him and his family to go to the lengths that they went to to harm the mother who’s been protecting the kids, feeding them and housing them and doing every single thing to protect them, without a penny from the other side,” she said.

 

Singh was protected only a bit by more police officers when officers laid charges against her ex-partner in June of 2025 for assault.

 

“They called their intimate partner violence team after seeing all the documents that I had accumulated and they told them about everything that was going on. So that night my son actually spoke on camera and said my dad’s not a good guy and I think it’s because of how articulate my son is that they finally believed what I had been trying to relay all along,” Singh said.

 

Singh advises anyone in a similar situation to ensure they have a great lawyer as her lawyer’s compassion and empathy allowed her to have support fighting this battle. Additionally, Singh advises women to really think about the partner they have, know who they are marrying and to protect their own rights.

 

She also emphasized how important it is for women who may be experiencing harm to know that banks only keep seven years of records and to be prepared that you cannot go past that timeline if you need those records or not for evidence.

 

This is a continuous battle Singh is still pushing through and asks that you share this story to help hold the justice system accountable. She has her own website you can learn more about her story on. You can also help fight for justice by donating on her GoFundMe page.

 

Meseret Haileyesus, the CEO for the Canadian Centre for Women’s Empowerment (CCFWE) said Keira’s Law recognizes the reality of coercive control. To make its promise real for families, Canada should ensure judicial education covers economic abuse in practical terms so high risk cases are identified early.

 

“Judges and court staff need concrete indicators to look for, such as sudden asset transfers, restricted access to funds, coerced credit, and benefit diversion,” Haileyesus said.

 

“When courts understand these patterns, they can order the right protections, preserve critical records, and connect families to safe banking and credit repair. This is how we reduce lethality, prevent femicide, and help children remain stable and secure,” she said.

 

A statement on the passing of Keira’s Law said CCFWE is the only national non-profit organization dedicated to empowering survivors of all forms of economic abuse.

 

It said CCFWE supports the recent passing of Keira’s Law (Bill C-233) by Canadian lawmakers to ensure continuing education for judges on matters related to domestic violence and coercive control. Moreover, on the CCFWE’s site, there are many resources for victims or survivors of economic abuse including the STEAR app, Canada’s first financial empowerment mobile app and a previous article with more insight on Keira’s Law.

 

Article Written By: Julia Vellucci, CCFWE social justice writer