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Youth unable to get ID because adoption papers not finalized

Jeanne Gagnon
Northern News Services
Published Monday, October 11, 2010

KANGIQTUGAAPIK/CLYDE RIVER - A mother in Clyde River says her adopted son is unable to get a birth certificate as the adoption papers filed 16 years ago are still in limbo.

As a birth certificate is the basis to obtain a social insurance number, the adoptive mother said her son cannot work.

She said she filed the adoption papers as soon as her adopted son was born, forms both she and the birth mother signed. The boy is now 16 and is unable to get a birth certificate and a social insurance number, she said.

"For some reason, the government can't seem to give him identification. I've been trying since his early age and up to today, we aren't able to get him (a) birth certificate," she said. "I don't know what's going on."

The mother said the adoption was not finalized for a variety of reasons, including once when there was an error in his last name. She said she tried contacting the government, a social worker, health minister and her MLA, all to no avail.

"It's always verbal. They don't write back to me. They don't give me information," she said. "I would wait for months, sometimes years, and then I would finally call them back and ask as to what's going on with the forms. ... We're not getting any help from anywhere."

As her adopted son is unable to get those documents, she said he is unable to get an after-school job or any job for that matter, and is now worried about college.

"I'm really frustrated," she said. "It's like having a foster child at my house or I'm either a babysitter for 16 years. ... And if I'm just the foster parent, then pay me for looking after the child if they don't want that child to be my son."

Her sister said she knows other people in a similar situation.

"Those guys are so willing to share their stories because they're so frustrated," she said. "They get passed on from one office to the other, one person to other and every time they get a response, it's an inconsistent response and it's never a written response where they can take action. They have to start from square one each time."

Under the Aboriginal Custom Adoption Acts, the territory's Department of Health and Social Services is responsible for all adoptions in Nunavut. The department did not return calls for comment.

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