Family Forum / Parenting / Adoption / March 2005

I think this is a press release, but I'm not sure.

http://www.cnw.ca/fr/releases/archive/March2005/29/c9314.html

Making adoption bill retroactive will break promises and invade privacy
of thousands of Ontarians

   TORONTO, March 29 /CNW/ - A new bill tabled today on adoption
disclosure
can lead to thousands of Ontarians having their privacy invaded, says
Ontario
Information and Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian.
   "Going from this day forward, with everyone aware of the rules, I
am in
favour of openness in adoptions," said the Commissioner. "But
retroactively
changing the rules and exposing the identities of birth parents who
entered
into the adoption process in an era when secrecy was the norm can have
major
repercussions."
   "I keep thinking," said the Commissioner, "of the young girls who
gave a
baby up for adoption 20 years ago thinking they were safe, and never
thinking
that a government would reveal their secrets. Birth parents cannot
simply be
ignored - they have rights, too."
   Every other Canadian province provides birth parents with the right
to
block the retroactive release of their identity, emphasized the
Commissioner.
The proposed Ontario law would give adoptees, at age 18, an unqualified
right
to access their original birth registration and adoption order. The
original
birth registration contains the personal information of the birth
mother -
and, at times, the birth father. These records are currently sealed
once an
adoption takes place. (Both adoptees and birth parents can voluntarily
consent
to the release of this information by signing up at a government
registry that
can lead to a reunion.)
   While the proposed Ontario law allows both birth parents and adult
adopted persons to file a "no contact" notice, with fines for violating
this,
a retroactive, unqualified right to access the original birth
registration is
unparalleled in Canada - it simply does not exist in other Canadian
provinces.
   The Commissioner is urging Community and Social Services Minister
Sandra
Pupatello to amend the bill to give birth parents and adoptees the
right to
file a "disclosure veto" where adoptions occurred prior to the
introduction of
the new legislation. These disclosure vetoes would introduce an element
of
consent for birth parents and allow them to block access to the birth
registration information, if so desired.

   Elsewhere across Canada:

   -  Quebec, Nova Scotia, P.E.I. and New Brunswick have laws where
      disclosure of adoption information is based on consent;

   -  In Manitoba and Saskatchewan, consent is required for disclosure
      related to adoptions that took place before new adoption laws
were
      introduced. And disclosure vetoes may be filed for information
related
      to adoptions since the time of the new laws.

   -  B.C., Alberta and Newfoundland are the only three provinces
where
      adoption legislation is applied retroactively, but even here,
each of
      these provinces provides for disclosure vetoes for earlier
adoptions -
      exactly what Commissioner Cavoukian is proposing that Ontario
do.
      Nowhere in Canada are the rights of birth parents completely
ignored.

   New South Wales in Australia has been cited as an example where a
retroactive adoption law was put into place with unqualified access.
Yet, two
years after that law came into effect, the New South Wales Law Reform
Commission reported that a "significant minority" of birth parents felt
the
law violated their privacy; that a "significant minority" of adoptees
disapproved of the law; and that a "majority" of adoptive parents were
opposed
to the law. (As well, a year after New South Wales brought in its law,
another
Australian state, Queensland, brought in an adoption law with core
principles
similar to what Commissioner Cavoukian is advocating.)
   "Relatively few Ontario birth parents would file a disclosure
veto," said
the Commissioner. "In fact, if provinces such as Alberta and B.C. are
an
example, only a small minority would. But this can be a life-changing
issue
for that minority and it is vital that we preserve their right to make
that
decision."
   The Information and Privacy Commissioner is appointed by and
reports to
the Ontario Legislative Assembly, and is independent of the government
of the
day. The Commissioner's mandate includes overseeing the access and
privacy
provisions of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act,
the
Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, and the
Personal Health Information Protection Act.