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In Didur v Viger, 392 F.Supp.2d 1268
(D. Kansas, 2005) the Mother filed a petition for return of her child to
Canada pursuant to Hague Convention. The District Court, held that the
father established that the child's return to his mother's custody in
Canada would expose him to grave risk of physical or psychological harm.
The Canadian child welfare authorities documented incidents in which the
mother repeatedly drove while drunk with the child, the mother was drunk
in public with the child alongside her, the mother was intoxicated
repeatedly while pregnant with the child's younger sibling, the mother
refused to parent the child, and the mother suffered from mood swings
and depression, the child was unable to obtain counseling in Canada, the
mother sought to have her parents obtain custody of child, and the
Canadian authorities recommended against returning the child to Canada
and stated that he would be placed in foster care if he was returned.
One of these four exceptions is the "grave risk" exception, which under
Article 13(b) of the Hague Convention allows a country to withhold an
abducted child if "there is a grave risk that his or her return would
expose the child to physical or psychological harm or otherwise place
the child in an intolerable situation."
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