The father is a Brazilian citizen, but has lived in Massachusetts, United States, since 1999. The mother is a Canadian citizen and lives in Manitoba, Canada. She has four children from a previous marriage. The couple began a relationship online and met in-person for the first time in July 2014 when the mother travelled to Massachusetts for a one-week visit. The mother visited Massachusetts again in August 2014 and became pregnant. She returned to Massachusetts in March 2015. The child was born there in May 2015 and has both American and Canadian citizenships. The mother and child returned to Manitoba in September 2015. The mother and child thereafter returned to live with the father on two occasions, from February to July 2016 and from September 2017 to March 2018. Since then, the child has been in her mother’s care in Manitoba. The father expected the mother and child to return to Massachusetts in fall 2018 but the parents’ relationship ended. In December 2018, the parents unsuccessfully tried to arrange a visit between the father and the child. The father’s last contact with the child was on December 24, 2018.
On June 26, 2019, the father filed a request with the American Central Authority to have the child returned to the United States under the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention. The Central Authority for Manitoba thereafter filed, on behalf of the father, a Notice of Application with the Manitoba Court on August 30, 2019.
This return application was heard concurrently with an application filed by the father to set aside a protection order that was obtained in August 2019 by the mother and that prohibited the father to communicate with the mother or the child. The father’s set aside application was granted and the protection order set aside in its entirety.
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