If you are in immediate danger, call 911 rather than starting a court process. Police can be at your door in minutes. A judge cannot. Most search results on this topic describe American state law, and the American answer does not work here. In Canada, a restraining order is a family law remedy. Only people in a defined relationship can ask for one. Everybody else needs a different tool, and the difference decides which building you walk into. More from us: Pro Bono Legal Services in Canada.
The short answer
Ontario judges grant these orders under section 35 of the Family Law Act, which covers spouses, former spouses and people who have lived together. Section 35 of the Children’s Law Reform Act covers parents where a child is involved. You have to show reasonable grounds to fear for your own safety or your child’s, and you file in family court.
Key takeaways
- Family court hears it, not criminal court, and only for a spouse, a former spouse, someone you lived with, or your child’s other parent.
- Everyone else asks for a peace bond under section 810 of the Criminal Code, which runs through the criminal courts for up to 12 months.
- No-contact conditions on bail or probation are not something a victim applies for. A criminal court imposes them on an accused person or an offender.
- Breaching the family court order is a criminal offence under section 127. Breaching a peace bond falls under section 811.
- An urgent motion without notice can produce a temporary order within days, and Ontario has a specific form for it.
Four tools that all say stay away
Page one tends to fold these together into one American blur. They are separate remedies, built by separate statutes, and they differ on who may ask, which courtroom hears it, and what a breach costs.
| Tool | Who can ask | Which court | What it takes | How long | Breach |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Family Law Act, section 35 | A spouse, former spouse, or anyone who has lived with the respondent for any period | Family court: Ontario Court of Justice or Superior Court of Justice | Sworn evidence of reasonable grounds to fear for your safety or your child’s | Interim, a fixed term, or until the court orders otherwise | Criminal charge under section 127, up to 2 years on indictment |
| Children’s Law Reform Act, section 35 | A parent or someone with decision-making responsibility for the child | Family court | The same fear test, usually framed around the child | Interim or final, no statutory ceiling | Criminal charge under section 127 |
| Peace bond, Criminal Code section 810 | Any person, against any person, with no relationship required | Criminal court, before a justice | Reasonable grounds to fear injury, damage to property, or an offence against a child | Up to 12 months | Charge under section 811, up to 4 years on indictment |
| Bail or probation conditions | Nobody applies. The Crown asks, and the court imposes | Criminal court, once a charge or conviction exists | An existing prosecution against the other person | Until the charge resolves, or the probation term ends | Section 145 for release conditions, section 733.1 for probation |
Rows are not interchangeable. A judge cannot grant you the first two if you were never a couple and share no child, and no amount of evidence changes that. Because the family court route sits beside parenting and support claims, many people raise safety inside a case they already have. Our other family law guides walk through those claims.
Who can apply for a restraining order in Ontario?
Your relationship with the other person is the gate. Get it wrong, and the court sends you away before it ever reads your affidavit.
The Family Law Act route
Section 35 lets a judge make an interim or final order against a spouse or a former spouse. It also reaches anyone who lives with you, or has lived with you for any period of time. One night does not count, but a short cohabitation can.
Terms are flexible. A judge can bar all direct and indirect contact, including messages passed through friends. Distance clauses are common, keeping the respondent away from your home, your workplace and a child’s school. Judges also carve out exceptions, such as arranged pickups through a third party, and can add any other term that fits.
The Children’s Law Reform Act route
Parents who never married and never lived together fall outside that first test. Section 35 of the Children’s Law Reform Act closes the gap, so a parent worried about a child can ask the same family court for the same kind of protection.
You usually bring it with the rest of your parenting claim rather than on its own. If money is already in dispute, our guide to how child support is calculated covers that side of the same case.
A peace bond covers everybody else.
Neighbours. Coworkers. A former partner you never lived with. Someone you met online. None of them fit the family law test, and all of them fit section 810.
Section 810 of the Criminal Code, published by the Department of Justice Canada, is open to anyone who fears, on reasonable grounds, for their safety. It caps the promise a defendant gives at 12 months. We cover this in more depth in Section 162, Crown Evidence, Penalties, Pro Tips, and Key Insights.
You start it at a police station or a courthouse, where a justice of the peace takes your information. The Crown then takes the file. A defendant can agree to the conditions without admitting anything happened, which is why so many resolve on the first date. It is not a conviction and leaves no criminal record by itself. A justice can jail someone who flatly refuses for up to 12 months.
The evidence a judge actually wants
Reasonable grounds is an objective test. Feeling unsafe is not enough on its own, because the judge has to see what a reasonable person in your position would make of the same facts. Yorn’s affidavit has to name events.
- Dates, places and what the person said or did, incident by incident.
- Screenshots of texts, emails, voicemails and social media messages, printed in full rather than summarized.
- Police occurrence numbers, and the name of any officer who attended.
- Photographs of injuries or property damage, plus medical or hospital records.
- Affidavits from anyone who saw or heard something firsthand.
- Copies of any existing bail, probation or family court order, with the exact terms.
Judges refuse applications built on a bitter separation and a general unease. They grant them where the record shows a pattern: escalating messages, a breached condition, an incident the police already attended. Vague language weakens a strong case, so write plainly and let the facts work.
How quickly you can get one
Genuinely urgent cases move on a motion without notice, meaning the other person is not told before the hearing. Courts reserve that for real risk, not for tactical advantage.
Ontario numbers the paperwork separately. An order granted on a motion without notice issues as Form 25G, while Form 25H is the one that terminates an order later. An order granted without notice is short-lived by design, and the judge sets an early return date so the respondent can answer. Bring your affidavit, your exhibits and a proposed order.
Duration, renewal and ending it
Nothing in either section 35 sets a maximum length. Interim orders run to the next court date. Final orders run for a fixed term, often one to three years, or until the court orders otherwise, which functions as indefinite.
Either party can move to change or terminate the order if circumstances shift. Renewal is not automatic, so ask before the current term expires and bring fresh evidence that the risk continues. An expired order protects nobody, and police cannot enforce a term that ran out last month.
What happens after a breach
Enforcement is the reason this matters more than a promise. Ontario courts send a copy of the order to the local police service together with a CPIC information form, in the version that took effect on January 31, 2024. The terms then sit on the national police database, so an officer responding to a call anywhere in Canada can read them on the spot.
Disobeying the order is a criminal offence under section 127 of the Criminal Code, carrying up to 2 years in prison on indictment. Breaching a peace bond runs under section 811, with a ceiling of 4 years. Release conditions fall under section 145, and probation terms under section 733.1. Charges also stack when the contact itself involves violence, and the numbers climb fast once the Crown proceeds on something like an aggravated assault charge.
Ontario relies on these two routes rather than a standalone family violence statute. Several other provinces and territories add emergency protection orders that a designated official can grant overnight, so a reader outside Ontario should check their own provincial legislation first.
Filing costs and which court
Where you file depends on your city and on what else you are claiming. The Ontario Court of Justice handles parenting, support and protection. The Superior Court of Justice handles those plus divorce and property, and in some communities a combined Family Court branch hears everything.
Ontario’s published family court fee schedule puts the cost of filing an application in the Superior Court of Justice at CA$214, with CA$171 for an answer. The same schedule charges nothing to start a family case in the Ontario Court of Justice. Ask the court office about a fee waiver if paying would be a hardship, since it covers most fees from that point on.
Frequently asked questions
No. Family court has no jurisdiction over someone you never lived with and share no child with. Ask police about a peace bond instead, and keep a written log of every incident while you wait.
No, and plenty of people file on their own. A lawyer helps most with the affidavit, which is where these applications are usually won or lost. Duty counsel and the Family Law Information Centre at the courthouse cost nothing.
They receive the documents you file, so tell the court before you file if disclosure would put you at risk. You can ask to use an alternative address for service, or to serve through a lawyer or agency.
Not quite. Bail conditions can disappear the day the charge resolves, while a family court order keeps running on its own terms. Many people hold both at once, and the conditions should be read together so they do not contradict each other.
