Couple now face court battle in two continents over custody and child's return to Canada

A toddler born to a Vancouver man and a woman visiting Canada from Ukraine is now at the centre of an international court battle over where he’ll live.

Edward Ronald Boney, 51, who was recently declared a legal guardian of “E.N.B.” by a B.C. Supreme Court judge, is seeking to have the child returned to Canada after the mom returned to Ukraine in February with the boy without his knowledge, according to the decision.

In March, Boney filed an application for the boy’s return through a provincial office, citing the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. The following month, he filed a separate claim in B.C. Supreme Court seeking shared guardianship and parenting responsibilities and the return of the boy to B.C.

Oksana Melnychaiko, 38, began her own family law proceedings in March in a court in Ternopil in Western Ukraine. She is seeking an order that would allow her to raise their child — who turns two in December — in Ukraine with child support from Boney.

In his ruling declaring Boney a legal guardian of E.N.B., Justice Richard Fowler wrote that the mother and father met on a dating site in January 2024. Melnychaiko had arrived in Canada in 2022 or 2023 on a work visa. Their child was born in December 2024.

While Boney never lived with Melnychaiko and their child, he regularly cared for him, including feeding him, changing his diaper, reading to him and taking him swimming and on other outings, according to the decision.

Boney, who had a paternity test done after the baby was born, used a spreadsheet to show the court he had spent $17,000 on baby items in his first 14 months and said he’d spent time with his son on 303 days of the first 432 days of his life.

He said he’d helped move her to a new apartment before the birth and picked up her and the baby when they got out of hospital. And he has regularly taken them shopping and to medical appointments, and did the laundry and other chores.

Boney had also taken the boy to family gatherings where he got to know his grandparents, aunt and uncle and Boney’s childhood friends, according to the decision.

E.N.B. had a B.C. Care Card, a Canadian social insurance number, Canadian passport, bank account, registered education savings plan account and medical coverage through Boney’s extended health plan at work, court heard.

For three months in mid-2025, Melnychaiko took the boy to Europe to visit family and friends. She did so again from December 2025 to January 2026. For both trips, Boney provided letters of consent required for international travel.

But when she left again with the child in February 2026, it was without his knowledge. She used Boney’s still-valid letter of consent from the December-January trip, according to the decision.

After Melnychaiko failed to return to Canada as planned in March, she told Boney in a lengthy text she was finding it difficult to live in Canada and that she was making a “life-changing” decision to stay in Ukraine. She accused him of not supporting her or their child, Fowler wrote.

Melnychaiko had taken the position a B.C. court didn’t have jurisdiction, or shouldn’t have exercised it, to hear Boney’s application on guardianship.

But Fowler found otherwise after concluding that the boy was “habitually resident” in B.C. when the father filed his claim for guardianship.

Fowler said it was “undisputed” that Boney regularly cared for the child before his removal from Canada and therefore is a guardian.

Fowler noted it would be “difficult” to establish the removal of E.N.B. violated his custody rights under the Hague Convention unless he was guardian at the time the child left Canada.

Melnychaiko provided little evidence during the two-day hearing to counter Boney’s version of events.

She provided no reason to the court for why she left Canada. But the ruling notes she didn’t have family in Canada, her immigration status was temporary and there’s no evidence she applied for or considered applying for more permanent status.

In Ukraine, the Justice Ministry has notified the court in Ternopil it has to wait for the Hague Convention decision on whether the child should be returned to Canada before issuing its custody decision, according to Fowler’s ruling.

That Hague Convention hearing by law takes place in the country to which the baby was taken and doesn’t decide permanent guardianship. That would be done in a later court hearing.