The estranged parents of a 10-year-old girl from Kitchener, Ont., are locked in a custody battle over whether their daughter should receive a measles vaccine before a trip to Germany.

The pair has been at odds over vaccines for years, and on Friday the issue came to a head at court in Kitchener.

Personal details about the parents and their daughter have been withheld because of a publication ban to protect the girl’s identity.

The 10-year-old's mother says she has been "blocked" by her estranged husband from taking her daughter on a vacation to Germany.

But her father said that he just wants his daughter to be safeguarded against the spread of disease.

"I want my daughter to be protected from vaccine-preventable diseases," he said in an interview with CTV Toronto.

"I want her to be vaccinated."

The girl's mother expressed concerns about the safety of the measles vaccine available in Canada.

But she also says she stands behind what has been her 10-year-old's independent decision to turn down vaccination.

"To me it's about having a child's voice being heard," she said.

"She doesn’t want to be vaccinated and she needs to have her own opinions as to what happens to her own body."

The child's mother believes that her daughter has done her homework on the subject and is old enough to make decisions for herself.

"She knows what's good for her and what's bad for," the mother said.

"She's healthy, she's got an instinct feeling and she's done her own research on it," she added.

While the Ontario's Health minister, Dr. Eric Hoskins, couldn't comment on the specifics of the case, he said in a statement on Friday that the province's goal is to "see as many Ontarians receive vaccinations as possible."

"Our government will continue to educate Ontarians about the importance of getting their children vaccinated to protect them from preventable diseases," Hoskins added.

A ruling is expected to be handed out by a judge in the next two weeks, because the trip to Germany is scheduled for the end of April.

The chief of infectious diseases at Public Health Ontario, Dr. Natasha Crowcroft, said that the vaccine is "incredibly safe," noting that out of the 330,000 MMR shots given in the province last year, there were only 49 cases of side-effects -- most of them mild.

There has been a rash of recent cases of the measles in Canada. Officials in Quebec confirmed earlier this month there are 136 cases of the viral infection in the province.

The outbreak is part of a chain of transmission that can be traced back to Quebecer who was infected at Disneyland in California and returned to the province.

There have also been 18 documented cases of the measles in Ontario.

With a report from CTV Toronto's Scott Lightfoot and CTV Kitchener