We were advised that discussion of changes to the Adoption Act would begin in late 2004 and completed in 2006. It is now June 2011 and we have been told for the past 3 years that the wheels were in motion to determine how and when the Act may be ammended.

An article in the Winnipeg Free Press August 8, 2008 mentioned that the Adoption Act, the Child and Family Services Act and the Authorities Act will be rewritten and may be amalgamated into one Act, and that this would be a 2-3 year project. The Post Adoption portion of the Adoption Act can and should be ammended now. Because of all the problems the government is experiencing with other areas of child care, adult adoptees are having to wait in line for something that should have been done years ago.

The final session of the present legislature has ended, and no changes to the Adoption Act have been made. It has been very discouraging for the past 11 years to have been told that the wheels are in motion for change, yet nothing happens. The politicians just do not feel that it is an important enough issue to garner them votes. Manitoba continues to lag behind the rest of Canada, and the world, with their antiquated post adoption legislation.

The next session of the legislature will not happen now until after the provincial election on October 4, 2011. The previous Conservative government left us with closed post adoption records, and the present NDP government has continued the injustice.

The end of another disappointing year

The 2010 sessions of the Legislature has now ended and still no change to the Adoption Act. After all the encouragement received from the government, only disappointment resulted. The process to change the Act began in 1999 and will have to carry on. The problem is that another election must be held on October 4, 2011, and if the present government gets defeated, then we start all over again.
The previous Conservative government refused to make the adoption records open retroactively, so wonder if they will have changed their thinking on this. If Bonnie Mitchelson, the minister in charge in 1999, gets to be Minister of Family Services, we will likely see no change under her leadership.
Our only hope is that the present government get re-elected so that what they are saying can be put into results, or that they open the records before the next election. This may be pretty hard to get through the legislature with the little time they sit in the spring and the fall will be a very short session.

Another disappointing year

The legislature has now adjourned for the summer, and there has been no announcement about opening the adoption law to make the adoption files from 1925 to March 15, 1999 open to those who deserve to have the information. It was one year ago that the government announced it was going to review the Act. I really don't know what there is to review. Other provinces and territories i.e. British Columbia, Alberta, Nova Scotia Newfoundland/Labrador, Yukon and now Ontario all have opened their adoption acts and made all adoption files open, both past and future. What is taking Manitoba so long to do what is right? In the meantime total strangers still have access to your personal information, and the law prevents you, the person whose life it affects, from getting that information. This makes absolutely no sense. It is very difficult to understand, in this society where the 'invasion of privacy' supposedly is held to be a crime, how the government's action can be justified.

December 2009

Unfortunately there has been no public announcement of any change to the Adoption Act. I have been reassured many times that change is coming, and soon, but when? It is very discouraging for adoptees to have some stranger have access to all their personal information, yet they are being denied this information. We certainly do have two-tiered and discriminatory practices within the Family Services. Other provinces have forged ahead and opened their adoption law to make it retroactive to include all persons adopted, not just those who were adopted after March 15, 1999. It has been 10 years since we were first assured changes would be made. What takes so long, or is there no will to make changes? We are told that we must consider those who do not want their files opened, so in the meantime the 95% or more who do want their information are made to wait while the feelings of the minority are being carefully considered. In a democracy the majority is supposed to rule, so why are we allowing the minority to deny us our information. Politicians are elected by majority votes, so why do they not accept the wishes of the majority when making or changing laws.

After holding many public meetings during the fall of 1997, it was concluded that open adoption laws were what people wanted. The new Adoption Act was written with open adoption laws for the future but not the the thousands of adoptees adopted prior to March 1999. It was the minority who opposed openness that ruled the decision.

Hopefully the government will do the right thing, and soon, and put this very important issue to rest by recognizing that adoptees and birthfamily members are not second-class citizens, but deserve equal consideration and given their personal information, information that is readily available to all other citizens, WHO THEY ARE.

Unedited version of CP release June 15, 2009

Manitoba considering opening up all adoption records going back to 1925

By Chinta Puxley

WINNIPEG ‹ Manitoba is considering opening up all adoption records going back to 1925, which some adoptees say would finally put them on par with others in North America, granting them the right to know their mother's name.

Manitoba passed legislation in 1999 that opened up its adoption records to birth parents and adult adoptees, but the access was not retroactive. For the last decade, adoptees and birth parents have lobbied to have the law changed so they have a right to their full medical and family history.

While some adoptees wonder why it's taking the province so long to consider full access, provincial officials say they are learning from others' mistakes and will launch a legislative review before making any changes.

"There is a North American trend to open records," said Janice Knight, Manitoba's manager of adoption and post-adoption programs. "We're moving into a whole different era and generation. People are asking about it and jurisdictions are moving to that. That's what Manitoba will be looking at."

Manitoba, which oversees about 100 adoptions a year, is proceeding gingerly in the wake of Ontario's court battle over similar legislation.

A group of adoptees and birth parents successfully challenged the Ontario law, saying it violated their right to privacy under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms because it did not contain a disclosure veto for those who didn't want to be contacted. The legislation was rewritten to include a veto and came into effect June 1, 2009. At least 2,500 people in Ontario have signed vetoes that keep their identities secret.

If someone in Manitoba was adopted before 1999 wants to find their birth parent, Knight said the province will contact that person on behalf of the adoptee. If they don't want any contact with their biological child, Knight said the province tries to get as much non- identifying information as possible, including medical history. "There are people involved who really believe that they have a right to know, but . . . we also, as a democratic society, have to balance rights," Knight said. "You can't force somebody to release privacy information without having their consent."

But some adoptees say they have the right to know who they are. Roy Kading, now in his seventies, tracked down his birth mother in 1977 without the help of the government. He said adoptees "live a lie" their entire lives without knowing anything about their background, including their mother's name.

"Why should you be the only person in North America who doesn't know your heritage? That doesn't know your birth mother, your birth father, your siblings? Why should we be different?" said Kading, with LINKS Post-Legal Adoption Support Group.

"Just give this block of people the right to have the same information that everybody else has the right to and that every other jurisdiction has given them."

Kading said he hopes the NDP government will eventually open up all records and extend access to the grandchildren of adoptees and birth parents trying to find out more about their family history.

"I hope they also open it up to grandparents," Kading said. "We have a lot of people who are grandparents - their son has died or their daughter has died, they've had a child and they have no rights. They can't do anything."

Manitoba's ombudsman's office and privacy watchdog declined to comment because it wasn't aware the government had a formal position on a further opening up of adoption records.

But Ontario's Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner says it's difficult for governments to retroactively open up adoption records when it promised people anonymity and sealed their records. "It's very difficult to retroactively open them up unless these individuals can be notified," said Michelle Chibba, director of the Ontario privacy commissioner's policy department. "These are extremely sensitive issues for these individuals. They've started a new life. They have been completely anonymous . . . How could you possibly make contact with those individuals to get their consent to open up these records?"

The Canadian Press

What is new in May 2009?

NOTHING, at least nothing has been announced by the government. We keep being assured that change is in the works. The adoption laws of other jurisdictions are being studied to ensure any changes to Manitoba adoption law will be designed for the adoption community of Manitoba. The people studying the laws must think that the adoption community of Manitoba is different from the adoption community of British Columbia, Alberta, Newfoundland & Labrador, Nova Scotia, or Ontario, all of whom have opened their adoption laws to make identifying information available for all adoptees and birthparents, past and future. I do not believe that the people of Manitoba are any different than those of the other provinces.

Why is it taking so long to 'study' these laws? I would think that those involved in Family Services would be well aware and conversant with the adoption laws of other provinces and jurisdictions around the world. The adoption laws, and regulations pertaining to those laws are readily available for study, and in some cases have been for many years. Sounds like a make work project to me. It could be that some of those involved in the 'study' are not fully committed to the task at hand and stalling is a means of voicing their displeasure. Could be some conflict of interest also involved.

I have been told several time during the past 2 years that open adoption records are going to happen, sooner than later. I can only assume no one really knows.

What's new in November 2008

NOTHING.  

From what I can gather our government is still 'studying' the issue.  If you study something long enough, maybe it will just go away.  The present government has been studying the concept of open adoption records for 9 years, and nothing has happened.  How long does this subject have to be studied?  Many of the members of the present government were in opposition when the previous government studied the issue, and finally opened up adoption records, but only for future adoptions.  What has changed?  The results of the study done in 1997 is still applicable today.  What more do they have to study?  

If this issue can be delayed until the next election, then the present government may not have to deal with it.  Maybe I am cynical but after 15 years of lobbying, hearing the voices of the adoption community of Manitoba wanting open records, and nothing has yet happened, who would not be cynical.

We have been told that the question of open adoption records has to be 'studied' to make sure that it is appropriate for the citizens of Manitoba.  Why?  Are we so different from the citizens of Newfoundland/Labrador, British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario who have opened their records.  I was always led to believe that all citizens of Canada are equal.  What has happened?

I do not blame the Minister, who could exert his power if he truly understood the issue, but I do blame the unelected bureaucrats  who advise the Minister, and who are responsible to do the studies and to make recommendations to the Minister.  They are the ones who wield the power in the legislature and are the people who can influence the decisions of the Minister.  A Minister is only appointed to a department for a short time.  They are new to the job, have a lot to learn about the department, and rely heavily on the unelected staff to advise them.  Often the staff they rely on transmit their own biases.  If they are opposed to open adoption records then they will do everything in their power to derail any attempt to open them.  Hopefully a Minister can see through this veil of deceit and do what is right by the adoption community of Manitoba.

The legislature will sit later in November for approximately one month.  Maybe, just maybe, something will be forthcoming.

Roy Kading

LINKS