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The right to know

Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Feb 25/02) - Provincial and territorial governments are slowly lifting the veil of secrecy that has thwarted birth parents and the children they put up for adoption from finding one another.

"The idea (behind the secrecy) was that the environment would overcome everything if the adoption occurred early enough," said Raymond Ensminger.

"The changes are a demonstration that there's an acceptance of the right of birth parents and children to know each other."

An Edmonton-based adoptions consultant, Ensminger gave a series of presentations to Health and Social Services officials and the public last week in Yellowknife. For the past 20 years he has campaigned for the reform of adoption laws.

During that time he has helped more than 1,000 parents and children find one another.

In 1998 the territorial government introduced new legislation that gives birth parents and adopted children the right to see their birth records.

Typically, adopted children find the identity of their biological mother in birth registration records. Birth parents look to amended birth registrations to find the name of parents who adopted their child.

The change to the NWT Adoptions Act applies only to adoptions completed in the territory after November 1998. Under the old act, the release of information was at the discretion of the territorial superintendent of adoptions.

As the social stigmas once attached to adoptions fall, the demand for information has increased.

"Going back to the 1980s there may have been two or three requests for a search per year; now there may be 10 a month," said Mary Beauchamp, health and social services adoptions consultant, in Yellowknife.

"The department doesn't have the capacity to respond to the requests coming forward," Beauchamp said.

The department conducts searches at the request of children or parents. In other jurisdictions, such as Alberta, the service has been privatized. Ensminger, for example, charges $300 to $500 per search.

Successful searches

Searches are as varied as the circumstances that lead to adoption. Beauchamp said she has completed some in one day. Others have gone on for years without success. Beauchamp said roughly 80 per cent of the searches are successful.

In most cases researchers uncover significant information within a few months. Northern babies adopted in the NWT are easier to research than those adopted outside the territory.

The type of adoption is also a factor in the search. Records of private and custom adoptions are harder to find than adoptions done through government agencies.

Only two jurisdictions, Newfoundland and British Columbia, provide complete access to birth records.

Ensminger said that, to his mind, there are no circumstances which justify not informing a child that he or she is adopted.