The provincial government is wasting valuable time seeking feedback on whether adoption records should be opened. The answer is quite simple: Yes. Immediately.
The province is seeking public input until March 31, followed by a report which ‘may’ suggest recommendations for ‘potential’ amendments to the Adoption Act. And within a year or so, long overdue changes might be made.
The province says the current legislation balances the rights and privacy of all parties to an adoption, including the birth parents, the children and the adoptive parents. That’s a lot of rubbish. It has no right to decide those issues – only family members do. The only people who should be consulted are the birth parents, the children and the adoptive parents. Everyone else should step aside and stop being part of the problem.
Open Records, a group which represents adoptees, says hundreds of Islanders are seeking justice. Their wishes should supersede all else. They are the innocent third parties and if they want to find their birth parents, that is their right and nothing should stand in their way. This is also true for birth parents seeking to locate their children.
The province was complicit in horrors of the past when out-of-wedlock mothers were discouraged from keeping their babies and P.E.I. became a source for international and interprovincial adoptions. Babies were literally snatched from the arms of their mothers and sent away through agencies and church groups, and basically sold to rich Americans -- never to be seen again. Records were sealed and secrets buried. Today, criminal charges would be warranted for those kinds of indefensible actions.
We see a huge shift in societal thinking - from moralistic judgment towards the best interests of the child and parental rights. Adoptees are ending their silence, are speaking out and demanding change. Unless this government finally acts, a court challenge under the Charter of Rights will settle the issue. From a legal standpoint, every adult Canadian citizen should have the right to his/her complete medical history and birth records.
The old taboos have ended. The iron grip of foster child agencies and churches - who made the rules and decided on the outcomes of countless lives - is over. The rest of Canada has opened adoption records. But P.E.I. must be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century.
Has the province not read and seen the innumerable stories of children seeking birth parents; and parents seeking their children; and the many heart-wrenching, tearful and joyous reunions of those families?
In this public review, government says it wants to know what might be the benefits or challenges for possibly opening adoption records. Is it serious? We’re not discussing balance sheets or trade deficits here. Those questions have been asked and answered around the world. We are dealing with human lives who have suffered long enough.
Government has fumbled this issue for years - keeping families apart. Shame on you. Hundreds of Islanders are waiting for justice - finally.
