An ex-husband who says he was ordered by the B.C. Supreme Court to grant his wife a religious divorce against his will says he will have to drop his appeal if he has to pay $14,000 to get transcripts made of the case.

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Y.S. wants the B.C. Court of Appeal to rule on whether his religious rights under Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms were breached.

High cost of court transcript makes appeal difficult for B.C. man seeking religious rights Back to video

But he failed in his bid to have the province’s highest court hear his appeal without the transcripts, according to a recent decision.

“The appellant has deposed that the cost of obtaining the transcripts will defeat his appeal,” said court registrar Timothy Outerbridge, in a recent decision called a “settlement of transcripts.”

But Outerbridge ruled while the court will try to reduce the size of a required transcript, which has been done in this case, the court needs transcript evidence to decide the appeal.

The judges need the evidence “to support the appellant’s proposed Charter argument,” he wrote.

Outerbridge acknowledged the financial challenge faced by those appealing decisions, particularly from trials.

He cited two previous judgments, one from 21 years ago saying the costs of transcripts is “so far beyond the means of a litigant (as) to make his or her right of appeal illusory.” The other, in 2025, said, “the cost of manual transcription still represents an expensive and very real barrier to advancing (an) appeal.”

Y.S. and his ex-wife, L.C., were married in a Jewish ceremony in 2009. They separated about 10 years later, according to the decision.

A legal civil divorce, including child and spousal support, parenting time and property splits, was granted after a 2023 B.C. Supreme Court trial.

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The trial judge also discussed the “get,” a Jewish divorce in front of three rabbis in a rabbinical court, during which a husband releases his wife from the marriage, Outerbridge’s decision said.

The husband must voluntarily give the get. If he fails to, the wife has no religious recourse and remains his wife under Jewish law, unable to marry, and her children of a civil remarriage would be considered “illegitimate,” it said.

The Supreme Court judge issued an order for Y.S. to attend the rabbinical court, which he did. But he told the rabbis he wasn’t there of his own free will, so the get was not granted, wrote Outerbridge.

He was found in contempt of court for “unreasonably refusing,” fined and ordered to voluntarily participate in the next rabbinical hearing, he said. He did and the get was granted.

Several months later, he filed his court appeal. Later, L.C. filed a cross-appeal, seeking retroactive support payments and basic child support.

Y.S. asks the Appeal Court to drop the trial judge’s orders for the get, contempt conviction and sentence, and seeks to have those set aside because they breach his rights under a section of the Charter that guarantees the freedom of conscience and religion.

“The purpose of Section 2(a) is to prevent interference with profoundly held personal beliefs that govern one’s perception of oneself, humankind, nature, and, in some cases, a higher or different order of being,” a government website says.

Y.S. argues overriding his religious rights can’t be justified by a section of the Charter that says rights are subject to “reasonable” legal limits that can be justified in a free and democratic society.

Outerbridge said the Court of Appeal’s rules require transcripts to resolve the grounds of appeal.

Y.S. said only “very limited” transcripts are required because he is advancing only legal and constitutional questions in relation to the get order.

But Outerbridge said Y.S. would need to show his religious belief is sincere and non-trivial. He ruled transcripts are necessary, particularly since L.C. said Y.S. inconsistently told the first trial he would grant the get with conditions or not at all.

And he noted that even though L.C.’s cross appeal requires the same transcripts, the appellant alone is responsible for providing them, and that the partial transcript could be further limited if both sides agree.