CNW - A new Ontario law will soon give adult adoptees and birth parents access to information that is currently sealed in their adoption records.
For years, adoptees and birth parents have worked to get personal and family information from their original birth certificates and adoption records. Ontario's new law will help adoptees find out what their original names were, as well as who their birth parents were. It could also help birth parents learn the name their child was given after he or she was adopted.
The law includes a new disclosure veto for all adoptions registered in Ontario. Adoptees and birth parents can begin to apply for disclosure vetoes in September 2008. Adoptees and birth parents will be able to apply for information from their adoption records starting in June 2009.
"For many, the bond between parent and child continues far beyond the adoption process. So does the need to know your identity," said Minister of Community and Social Services Madeleine Meilleur. "Now our adoption laws finally recognize that reality."
"This act will have a profound impact on thousands of people who have been longing for years, often decades, to know their roots or the names of their children," said Wendy Rowney from the Coalition for Open Adoption Records. "Finally, as adults, we can make private, responsible decisions regarding contact."
    
QUICK FACTS:
- Approximately 250,000 adoption orders have been filed 
in Ontario since 1921.
- Almost 75,000 people have registered with Ontario's
voluntary Adoption Disclosure Register, searching for
information about their birth relatives.
- Ontario is the fifth Canadian province to open its adoption
records. (British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, and Newfoundland
and Labrador already have open records, as do the United
Kingdom
and New South Wales).
 
Visit Service Ontario at
www.serviceontario.ca
to learn more about services and information for adoptees and
birth relatives.
