This booklet is for grandparents who want to know about their rights and options with respect to their grandchildren. For grandparents who are currently being, or are worried that they will be, denied access to their children, this booklet explains what is involved in obtaining access with your grandchildren through a “contact order”. For grandparents who are concerned about the safety and well-being of their grandchildren, this booklet outlines the various options that would enable those grandparents to care for those grandchildren. This booklet also provides links to grandparents’ organizations that can help with all aspects of these issues. This 20 page PDF is available for free download.
LawCentral Alberta
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Are you wondering about your rights to care for or visit children as their grandparent or other relative?
The resources on this page were hand-picked by the Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta's staff as a good place to start.
CPLEA Suggested Resources
Not sure where to begin finding answers to your questions. Get started with our suggested resources. See additional resources below for more information.
Right to Love: Grandparent's Rights
This video explains the traditional role of Aboriginal grandparents, the historical significance of family members being severed from one another, and what a grandparent can do to maintain connection to their grandchild in government care in Alberta today. Grandparents will learn about Family Group Conferences, guardianship, kinship care, and visitation and feel empowered in their sacred family role.
Alberta Resources
This website of the Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta (CPLEA) focuses on how Canadian law protects and affects older adults. Topic areas covered include elder abuse, planning for the future, personal and family relationships, and various other issues (e.g. consumer, travel).
Alberta Family Mediation Society (AFMS) advocates resolution of family conflict through the use of mediation by qualified professionals. AFMS offers a family-centered conflict resolution process in which an impartial third party (the mediator) helps the participants in negotiating a consensual, informed and fair agreement.
This online resource from Alberta Human Services relates to situations when an adult would like to become a guardian of a child to support or replace the parent. It explains private guardianship and the process of applying for a private guardianship order.
This handbook from Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre provides information on a range of legal subjects of interest to seniors (people who are 65 years of age and older). It is written in “plain English” and is intended as a basic resource for seniors, their friends, relatives and advocates. In a question-answer format, the handbook provides an overview of issues facing seniors, including abuse, mental health, guardianship and trusteeship, personal directives, powers of attorney and consumer protection. Includes a glossary and list of senior-serving agencies in Alberta. (PDF - 150 pages, 2010)
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