The courts have repeatedly stated that denial of access is child abuse, starting with Trembaly v. Tremblay (1987) in the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench and cited with approval in numerous cases across Canada to this day (including a recent case in the SK CoA earlier this year.
I can get you the complete citation and quote if you wish.

..As stated in the case of Simpson v. Simpson, CA02097, August 16, 2002 in the Court of Appeal for Saskatchewan:

[5] It is clear from a review of the file that the respondent wife
has refused to comply with court orders to provide access, even
extending to court orders to which she has consented. She has refused
to deliver the children either directly to the applicant husband or
to a neutral drop off point. In circumstances like these, and in the absence of any evidence that it would be in the best interest of the children not to order interim custody to the parent who is denied access, it is important that one who consistently flaunts orders of the court not do so with impunity. I agree with the comments of Madam Justice Trussler in Tremblay v. Tremblay, [1987] 6 W.W.R. 742 at 745,in which she stated that:

I start with the premise that a parent has the right to see his or
her children and is only to be deprived of that right if he or she
has abused or neglected the children. Likewise, and more important, a child has a right to the love, care and guidance of a parent. To be denied that right by the other parent without sufficient justification, such as abuse or neglect, is, in itself, a form of child abuse.

First ruling for male equality

re: Birth Certificate - father's info

By KIRK MAKIN, Globe and Mail, June 6, 2003 More..

Dad's 1m fight for his child
Coventry Evening Telegraph, City News, U.K. by Liz Hazelton, July 27, 2004

Enforcement of the relationship rights with parents - The laws that are supposed to protect children's right to a continued relationship with parents as designated in a separation agreement or when parents choose to live apart. click here

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Should a friend have access to kids?

National Post, Jana G. Pruden, Wednesday, April 26, 2006

REGINA - A rift between friends has launched a landmark legal battle as a man who paid for his "special friend" to get in vitro fertilization fights for visitation rights with her children.

"This is a new legal frontier ...," Brad Hunter, lawyer for the children's mother, said yesterday during a hearing at the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal. "[This is] somewhere in the family law world we've never been before." More ..