CBC Ottawa Broadcast - Ontario Today
Host Dave Stephens with guest Heather Evans on Adoption Laws
July 9, 1998

Intro: The provincial government is pondering recommendations that could make it easier for children in the care of Children's Aid Societies to be adopted. There is a large demand for kids… but only 562 were adopted last year in Ontario. [1997] Up to four thousand kids could be eligible, if these recommendations are implimented. Ontario Today's Heather Evans is in our Toronto studio to tell us more.

1. Heather, What is this about?

We hear a lot about barriers to adoption, the lack of children available for families to adopt locally… but the Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies says there are children who want and need permanent homes in Ontario… but provincial law is standing in the way. Nearly half of the children in C-A-S care are crown wards… permanent wards of the state. That means children permanently in the care of the government… but they have what are called 'access orders' attached to their wardship. That means that someone connected with their biological families… their parents, grandparents or brothers and sisters can have contact with them. It doesn't mean they do… but it means they can. The law says anyone with those access orders cannot be adopted.

Last month, a panel of experts studying the child welfare system in the province recommended that the law be changed. Mary McConville… executive director of the association that represents Children's Aid Societies around the province believes if that happened it would give some children a whole new start…

2. What did the panel suggest instead of the current situation?

The panel suggested that adoptions be allowed where there is contact with biological family… it can be a range of contact from photos passed on through a third party such as the C-A-S to visits… Roselyn Zisman is a family lawyer in Toronto who has represented biological parents, adopting parents, children, the C-A-S… so she's seen this situation from different sides.

I spoke to Susan Switch, another lawyer… She's represented many biological parents whose children are in the care of Children's Aid.

If this change went into effect then, adoptive parents might be able to negotiate a from and amount of contact they feel comfortable with and that they think will be good for the child they're adopting.

3. So, what's the downside… in an area as complicated and as tangled as family law, Children's Aid and adoptions… there must be people who don't agree with this change happening?

The two main criticisms I've heard are that having any contact at all with biological families might scare off some prospective adoptive parents… or that the contact with biological families might become the norm when it might not always be best for the child involved.

Roselyn Zisman addresses those. She also makes a point that others I talked to made… that adoption with contact as it's called has become common in private adoptions. She believes this is a case of the public system lagging behind… and should try to catch up. It used to be that contact with biological families was discouraged because the adoption had been secret and many children didn't know they'd beed adopted. But that's changed.

4. What's happening now that these recommendations have been made to the government?

When the expert panel made the recommendations last month, Janet Ecker, the Minister with responsibility for Children's Aid said she is generally supportive and hopes to bring in legislation in the fall. But there is history to the recommendations on adoptions… these have been around on one form or another for years… without the government moving. So, it's not clear where the recommendations will go this time. There'll be a better indication by the fall.

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