Your rights and the law
and
Advices on Searching
and
Summary of the Present Situation
Rights of persons that have been the object of a adoption consent that they have been adopted or not:
N.B.: We prefer the use of the expression "persons that have been the object of a adoption consent that they have been adopted or not" instead of "adopted persons (or adoptees)" because this latest concept does not cover all the persons aim by our works.
Always write registered letters to the name of the director of the adoption service and insist on having a written response within the prescribe delays.
If your are not satisfied by the responses you received, fill a complaint to higher level (services des plaintes des Centres jeunesses and after the Régie régionale de la Santé).
Register to the adoption center, today named the Centres de protection de l'enfance et de la jeunesse (C.P.E.J.)
Ask for your social and medical backgrounds summary (article 131.1. of the Youth Protection Act) and register to the search and reunion services. There is no law or by-law that describe the content of the summary. If it was change, ask first for your primary first and last name or the first and last name you had before your adoption. In a second letter (after you have received a response to the first letter), ask if the primary last name is the one of your birth mother or father. Generally, the C.P.E.J. will response "no" if it is a fictitious name but will response that they can not answer if it is the same name.
Register to the projet-pilote (pilot project) on search and reunion, if it is still available.
Inquire in which Court was order your adoption order and insist to have from this Court (generally, the Chambre de la jeunesse (Youth Court), apply to the clerk of the Court) your adoption order cetificate. The adoption order could contain the birth parents names. In the case that the names are unknown by the C.P.E.J., a change of law would permit access to those names.
Ask, if such is the case, your church for a exact copy of your entry in their civil status register including the part about your adoption order. The law forbids the public to look inside the registry but ask for it anyway.
Register to many support groups because the data banks of the different groups are not centralize. Support groups are not the Centres de protection de l'enfance et de la jeunesse, you have to register to all of them.
The C.P.E.J. have to inform you, if it is known, of the name of the hospital or other institution where your birth mother has deliver. From then, insist on having your birth medical record and all other medical record from orphenage, etc. (articles 17. and following of the Loi sur les services de santé et les services sociaux).
If the C.P.E.J. inform you that your birth parent is deceased, insist on having the death certificate with the cause of death (article 23. de la Loi sur les services de santé et les services sociaux).
If you think that the name of a person is the name of the sought after birthparent, certain C.P.E.J., at their discretion, will tell if the information does not appeared in the record. If the information appeared in the record, the C.P.E.J. will response that they can not answer because it is confidential.
Private adoption are not rule by the same by-laws, try anyway to register the C.P.E.J. Who knows! Try to have your Birth medical record. wether the adoption was private or public, there is suppose to have a adoption order, insist on having the certificate of adoption order.
Illegal adoption are the most complexe cases because in most case there is no records. Try to register to the C.P.E.J. anyway and register to the support groups.
Rights of the birth parents:
Always write registered letters to the name of the direction of the adoption service and insist on having a written response within the prescribe delays.
If your are not satisfied by the responses you received, fill a complaint to higher level (services des plaintes des Centres jeunesses and after the Régie régionale de la Santé).
Register at the adoption center, now named the Centres de protection de l'enfance et de la jeunesse (C.P.E.J.). Register to the search and reunion services. Register to the projet-pilote (pilot project) on search and reunion, if it is still available.
Register to many support groups because the data banks of the different groups are not centralize. Support groups are not the Centres de protection de l'enfance et de la jeunesse, you have to register to all of them.
If the C.P.E.J. inform you that your child is dead, insist on having the death certificate with the cause of death (article 23. de la Loi sur les services de santé et les services sociaux). If the C.P.E.J. cannot provide a death certificate, fill a complaint to the police.
Text prepared by André Desaulniers
Before anything else, We have to admit that the law which make the confidentiality of the adoption records implicate that it is suppose to be impossible to be able to find the sought after person. It is how, that for most of the persons concerned, only a change of the law will permit them to know the sought after person. So participate numerous to our mailing campaign.
Like a detective, get yourself a note book and write all your search results.
In the first place, obtain all the documents that the law authorise you to have (see text above). Inform yourself to your family, if they remember something. It is possible in the case of an adoptee that one of the birth parents is part of the family. It is necessary to think over the data we have obtained and extrapolate from them. Give a particularly good attention to the ages of death when they are away from the average (for example, if your grand-father as passed away at 34 years of age or if you discover with the death certificate of your mother that she die at 38 years of age). If you have an idea on the place of the death, it could be easy to find the birth parent from the necrologie of the newspapers.
Example: The data you have gather inform you that your birth mother was 22 years of age when she get birth of you in 1964. Your birth mother was born (1964 - 22) around 1942. The father of your birth mother has died at 34 years of age when your birth mother was 3 1/2 years old. Your grand-father has died (1942 + 3 1/2) around 1942 and 6 months.
If you have succeed in getting infallible informations like death date (birth mother, father or other relatives), family name, place of death (if it is a small town) start then the search in the library. It is preferable, at this stage, to obtain the help of a qualified person. (register at parents finder or another group that give help to find person). Ask the librarian, how to use the microfilms of the newspapers (to know if there is a death announcement), the index consolidé des mariages (wedding consolidated index) (to know if the sought after person was wed) and the index consolidé des décès (death consolidated index) (to know if the sought after person or a relative is dead). The index consolidé des mariages and the index consolidé des décès are also available on CD-Rom at some public Library which have a genealogical section. The archives of the genealogist (Droin) can be useful. After that, th search in the phone directory (paper format or internet) will permit you to track down the sought after person or a relative.
You can also read this text for further help: "Adoption: the Right to Know"
Text prepared by André Desaulniers.
When a person start to have conscious of the fact that he or she might have been adopted, it is not easy to know where to go to obtain responses. By asking our parents, the church, the Court of Justice, etc. we may obtain responses but it could a harsh job.
Even if it is not easy, it is not illegal to know if we were adopted but in certain case it could be tough to know if we were adopted or not.
Perhaps that some persons never thought of that they could be adopted and will never do.
There is trois ways to know who are the birth parents or the child that was hand over to adoption:
- The personal search, if the clues are sufficient;
- The passive registry (1), when both parties register and we discover the matchl;
- The active registry (2), when the sought after person accept to meet the other party.
The personal search are not fruitful or only one of the two parties registered to the passive registry.
In the case of the active registry, three cases can happen:
- The sought after person is contacted but wish to preserved her or his anonymity (right to protection of private life);
- The sought after person is undiscoverable;
- The sought person is deceased.
In those three cases, there is an definitive end to the work of the Centres de protection de l'enfance et de la jeunesse. The adoptee cannot get access to his or her medical backgrounds.
Text prepared by André Desaulniers.
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(1) The passive registry permit to the birth parents and the adoptee to register in a registry. And if there is a match, the employee in charge will contact both parties for a meeting and will offer, if such is the case, psychological support.
(2) The active registry permit, by paying the fees, the adoptee or the birth parent to ask to contact the other party in order to ask him if she or he wish to have a meeting. If the other party accept, the employee in charge will arrange a meeting and offer psychological support.