Home  ›  Ilm Hub  ›  Answers  ›  Can a will be challenged in Ontario?
Ilm Hub

Can a will be challenged in Ontario?

Ontario allows dependant support claims under Part V.

This is legal information only. For advice on your own circumstances, speak to a lawyer.

Ontario allows dependant support claims under Part V.

The Canadian position

Claims are brought in the Superior Court of Justice. The grounds are statutory — inadequate provision, capacity, undue influence — not religious disagreement.

British Columbia is the outlier nationally, because section 60 of WESA lets an independent adult child apply to vary a will.

The Islamic position

A faraid distribution treats sons and daughters unequally, which is the feature such a claim targets where the province permits it.

Recording the reasoning in a memorandum kept with the will is worth doing regardless of its legal weight.

Where the four schools stand

Researched — the four schools agree

Agreed. Where sons and daughters inherit together they take the residue of the estate two shares to the son for every one to the daughter, on the words of Surah an-Nisa 4:11, “the share of the male will be twice that of the female”. Ibn Rushd records this as a point the Muslims agreed on; Ibn Qudama, listing the four kinds of male heir who take alongside their sisters in this ratio — a son, a son’s son however far down, a full brother and a paternal half-brother — states flatly that there is no disagreement about it. We checked this point; the schools do not differ on it. But note what the ratio does not say. It is not a general rule that a woman always takes half of what a man takes: maternal half-brothers and half-sisters share their third equally, male and female alike; a mother and a father each take the same one sixth where there are children; and among the remoter male relatives — a brother’s sons, paternal uncles and their sons — their sisters take nothing at all, so there is no ratio to speak of. The two-to-one rule is one rule inside a scheme, not the scheme.

Shared evidence: Surah an-Nisa 4:11 — “the share of the male will be twice that of the female” · Surah an-Nisa 4:176 — the same ratio between brothers and sisters in kalalah · Sahih al-Bukhari, Book 85 (Fara’id) — “give the fixed shares to those entitled to them; what is left goes to the nearest male”.

Not covered by this finding: whether lifetime gifts may lawfully be used to even out the difference between sons and daughters, and how a Canadian court order varying a will — a BC wills-variation claim, or a dependant support order — sits against the ratio — not yet researched school by school. Treat that as open and ask a scholar of your school.

Researched finding from our madhhab register — issue share-2to1-son-daughter, reviewed 2026-08-19.

Beyond the four Sunni schools

The register covers the four Sunni schools. The Ja’fari (Twelver Shia) school reaches different outcomes in some configurations, because it organises heirs into classes rather than into fixed-share holders and residuaries — so a Shia family should not read a Sunni comparison as settling their case.

Full evidence and history: The two-to-one ratio between a son and a daughter — the issue page.

Related madhhab issue: Can the fixed shares be varied by agreement?.

Note

This is legal information only. For advice on your own circumstances, speak to a lawyer.

Citations & sources

Every factual claim on this page traces to a source below. Details change — check the original source before relying on any figure, fee or legal position. Anything under “further reading” is related material, not a source for what is stated here.

Canadian legislation & government
  1. Succession Law Reform Act, RSO 1990, c S.26 — Government of Ontario
  2. Grewal v. Litt, 2019 BCSC 1154 — CanLII
  3. Wills, Estates and Succession Act, SBC 2009, c 13 — BC Laws
  4. Canadian Legal Information Institute — CanLII
Further reading — Treadstone Law
  1. Adult child dependant support claim ontario — Treadstone Law
  2. Estranged adult child dependant support claim ontario — Treadstone Law
  3. Undue influence will challenge ontario — Treadstone Law
  4. Undue influence will challenge ontario — Treadstone Law
  5. Wills & estates practice — Treadstone Law