Elisabeth Heslop
The Ontario government recently announced adopted adults and birth parents now can get information from their birth and adoption records that previously was closed.
While there are many specific points of this legislation that can, and likely will, be debated, an important aspect is how these changes will affect the people at the centre of the issue: adopted adults and birth parents.
“I know that there is this need to know for some people, almost a desperate need to know where you come from,” said Bernice Kempf, who co-ordinated adoptions in this area for 13 years.
Kempf’s predecessor, Betty McLeod, helped co-ordinate adoptions in Thunder Bay and Rainy River District from the 1960s-80s.
“The main player in the scenario is the child and I had long enough experience to realize that there were many children that were very frustrated because they couldn’t find their background,” McLeod said.
“The young adoptees that came forward, and not all of them, but many of them were really unfulfilled because they couldn’t trace back to their roots.
“It was such a blank for them,” she stressed.
But there’s another side to the issue. What about the birth parents that don’t want their past showing up on their doorsteps or the children who were part of a Crown ward adoption, when their birth parents had lost their parental rights through the court system?
Maybe finding their birth parents only will bring pain.
“I’m torn because I’ve experienced in my work both sides of the story,” conceded Kempf. “I have witnessed wonderful open adoptions, where the birth parents and the adoptive parents are friends and it’s wonderful, but sometimes circumstances can’t do that. . . .
“I’m looking at this new law and thinking, ‘I hope nobody gets hurt badly,’ but then on the other hand, they have a right to know.
“I think it’s very important that every person should know who they are, what they are, their identity, as much as possible,” Kempf continued. “The ones that want to know, I think, are entitled to as much non-identifying information as possible and, should the other party agree, the identifying information.”
“The Access to Adoption Records Act, I believe, will impact anyone who has been involved with an adoption,” said Martene Nelson, the current adoptions officer for Family and Children’s Services here.
“Although adoption is more open now and the dynamics of adoption have definitely changed in the past 20 years, it still remains to be a very sensitive and personal subject,” she noted.
“There are many different circumstances that surround an adoption and it all depends on how that adoptee, adoptive parents, and birth parents view the experience.”
“I think [the new law] has created a little fear,” said Kempf. “I have not talked to anybody but just knowing the dynamics, I think that it could initially [cause turmoil].
“But, like everything else, I think that eventually it will become commonplace.”
The legislation, known as the Access to Adoption Records Act, is the latest attempt by the provincial government to release adoption records, said Nelson. It gives birth parents and adopted adults over the age of 19 “the opportunity to access what was once considered confidential information or identifying information.”
It also provides options for birth parents and adopted adults to ensure their privacy by controlling what kind, and how much, information is released—as long as the adoption was finalized prior to Sept. 1, 2008.
“Any information pertaining to an adoption that has been registered in the Province of Ontario following the Sept. 1, 2008 date cannot be withheld,” said Nelson.
“But again, an adoptee cannot be contacted by birth family members via the Ministry [of Community and Social Services] until they are of legal age,” she stressed.
Since the legislation can be rather confusing, Nelson suggested anyone seeking more information should contact ServiceOntario at 1-800-461-2156 or visit www.serviceontario.ca
People who have other inquiries regarding adoptions, or who only are looking for non-identifying information, can contact Nelson at Family and Children’s Services (274-7787 ext. 267).
