Here are some links and documents for further background information, with an explanation of each. This section also includes a number of news articles containing some shocking information about the shameful way that personal records have been disrespected.
Ontario Law
Here is the law that forbids the Registrar General of Ontario from making any corrections on the original birth registrations of adoptees.
Vital Statistics Act of Ontario – Section 28 (6)
This is found under the heading of “Adoption Orders” (however this particular clause refers to the original birth registrations of adoptees). Original birth registrations of adoptees are now opened and unsealed for those who request them (provided a disclosure veto has not been filed against it).
If the birth registration is already open, why is it not allowed to be put right?
*Note – Even errors on the document are not allowed to be corrected.
Restriction on changes, etc., to original registration
(6) After the original registration is sealed under subsection (2), the Registrar General shall not at any time amend it, add information or particulars to it, correct errors by making notations on it, substitute a subsequent registration for it or cancel it, despite any other provision of this Act. 2005, c. 25, s. 3.
https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90v04
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
Ontario law violates the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as it deliberately prevents people from having all elements of their identity, which according to the UN, includes all information on the original birth registration, including the original birth registrations of adoptees. The UN has stated that adoption cannot be used as an excuse to deny people elements of their identity. This includes putting the father’s name back onto the original birth registration when all concerned parties consent to it.
The Preamble to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child makes it clear that everyone is entitled to the rights in the convention, regardless of “birth or other status” – this covers adoptees.
“Preamble
Recognizing that the United Nations has, in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the International Covenants on Human Rights, proclaimed and agreed that everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth therein, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status,“
Article 2 re-enforces the Preamble about “birth or other status”
Article 2
“States Parties shall respect and ensure the rights set forth in the present Convention to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the child’s or his or her parent’s or legal guardian’s race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status.“
Here is Article 8 from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
This is the section that Ontario law violates.
Article 8
- States Parties undertake to respect the right of the child to preserve his or her identity, including nationality, name and family relations as recognized by law without unlawful interference.
- Where a child is illegally deprived of some or all of the elements of his or her identity, States Parties shall provide appropriate assistance and protection, with a view to re-establishing speedily his or her identity.https://www.unicef.org.uk/what-we-do/un-convention-child-rights/
UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Ontario law violates Article 2 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. According to Article 38 of the same declaration, the Canadian Federal government is supposed to uphold all the Articles in the declaration, and even take legislative action to do so. With regards to records, the Canadian Federal government has ignored both Article 2 and Article 38. Article 8 is also violated. The Canadian Federal government has completely ignored the identity rights of the 60’s Scoop victims.
“Article 2
Indigenous peoples and individuals are free and equal to all other peoples and individuals and have the right to be free from any kind of discrimination, in the exercise of their rights, in particular that based on their indigenous origin or identity.”
“Article 38
States in consultation and cooperation with indigenous peoples, shall take the appropriate measures, including legislative measures, to achieve the ends of this Declaration.”
“Article 8
1. Indigenous peoples and individuals have the right not to be subjected to forced assimilation or destruction of their culture.
2. States shall provide effective mechanisms for prevention of, and redress for: (a) Any action which has the aim or effect of depriving them of their integrity as distinct peoples, or of their cultural values or ethnic identities”
https://www.ohchr.org/en/indigenous-peoples/un-declaration-rights-indigenous-peoples
Canadian Federal Law on Documents
It is against Canadian Federal law to damage or destroy personal documents.
This law has been broken multiple times by provinces across Canada, especially in Ontario. As far as we are aware, no province has ever been held accountable for the damage done to adoptee’s birth registrations or the issuing of false death certificates for them.
From the Criminal Code of Canada (Offences Against Rights of Property)
Damaging documents
- 377(1) Every person is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than five years or is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction who unlawfully
- (a) destroys, defaces or injures a register, or any part of a register, of births, baptisms, marriages, deaths or burials that is required or authorized by law to be kept in Canada, or a copy or any part of a copy of such a register that is required by law to be transmitted to a registrar or other officer,
- (b) inserts or causes to be inserted in a register or copy referred to in paragraph (a) an entry, that he knows is false, of any matter relating to a birth, baptism, marriage, death or burial, or erases any material part from that register or copy,
Offences in relation to registers
378 Every person is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than five years or is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction who
- (a) being authorized or required by law to make or issue a certified copy of, extract from or certificate in respect of a register, record or document, knowingly makes or issues a false certified copy, extract or certificate,
- (b) not being authorized or required by law to make or issue a certified copy of, extract from or certificate in respect of a register, record or document, fraudulently makes or issues a copy, extract or certificate that purports to be certified as authorized or required by law, or
- (c) being authorized or required by law to make a certificate or declaration concerning any particular required for the purpose of making entries in a register, record or document, knowingly and falsely makes the certificate or declaration. https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-46/page-53.html
Adoptees Can find Mom but not Dad – Article by the Toronto Star
10th December 2009 – written by Nicole Baute
In this article, the Ontario government admits that the vast majority of father’s names are missing from the original birth registrations of adoptees. The Ontario government also admits that fathers names were scratched out, whited out or even covered up with a blank form and that unwed parents were (illegally) prevented from naming the father when they had the legal right to do so after 1960.
“Out of all 250,000 Ontario adoption registrations, less than 10 per cent have fathers’ names on them, according to the Ministry of Government Services (of Ontario).”https://www.thestar.com/life/adoptees-can-find-mom-but-not-dad/article_7e055124-a476-5754-b34e-48551dc8f6ea.html
Sixties Scoop survivors say birth records ‘mysteriously’ lost or destroyed – 29th September 2016. CBC news article about destroyed and missing records of 60’s Scoop adoptees.
From the article – “When Lori Ann O’Cheek went to search for her birth records, she was told her files burned in a fire. When Carla Williams asked a different agency for her birth records, she too was told they burned in a fire. Likewise Trevor Bass. Likewise Jessica Sear.
Wayne Snellgrove, on the other hand, was not told his birth records were destroyed. He was told there were none to begin with.”
… “Eric Robinson is a former NDP MLA and was Manitoba’s former Aboriginal and northern affairs minister. He said he’s “disappointed but not surprised” to hear some survivors can’t access their birth records.
“I’ve heard stories like this for years,” he told the CBC. “It’s a further violation of these people.” https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/sixties-scoop-survivors-money-1.3782587
Social Services told 60s Scoop survivor documents were ‘destroyed’: privacy commissioner
A 60s Scoop survivor seeking documents from the Ministry of Social Services relating to their apprehension was denied access because the documents had been “destroyed,” a new review report from Saskatchewan’s Information and Privacy Commissioner reveals.
Chatelaine Article – Inuit 60’s Scoop figures
The 60’s scoop settlement was agreed to in December 2018, yet in September 2020, only 152 Inuit had been approved out of a total of 774. That is almost 2 years later, leaving the majority in limbo. Is it not exclusion when so many wait so long with the approval rate so low? Many could not access their records to make their claims. How many have died waiting?
https://chatelaine.com/living/inuit-sixties-scoop/
60s Scoop survivor says she was told her foster care records no longer exist – CTV news November 2020 – Regina
From the article – “Sixties Scoop survivor, Lani Elliott, said she was recently told by the Ministry of Social Services that her records from the time she spent in care cannot be found, and it is unclear if the files even existed.
The letter addressed to Elliott states: “We are sorry to inform you that although searches were completed using all the names you provided to us we were unable to locate any records in your name.”
“In the past, files were kept for different lengths of time based on the policies and practices of the day and then destroyed,” the letter said.”https://regina.ctvnews.ca/60s-scoop-survivor-says-she-was-told-her-foster-care-records-no-longer-exist-1.5175110?cache=bubsnwirst
Adoptees struggle to get birth certificates
For decades, it has been an ordeal for Nunavut adoptees to obtain an Ontario birth certificate if one wasn’t issued at the Ottawa hospital where they were born. That hassle remains. https://www.nunavutnews.com/nunavut-news/adoptees-struggle-to-get-birth-certificates-7276392
Mothers told their babies had died yet there are no death certificates for them
Mothers were told that their baby had died in the hospital – why is there no death certificate? In one case, there isn’t even a record of the birth.
https://www.aptnnews.ca/investigates/first-nations-mothers-allegedly-told-babies-died-shortly-after-birth-in-saskatchewan-hospitals/
Identity documentation is northwestern Ontario’s ‘invisible problem – 4 Years to get a birth certificate
Joseph “Martial” Arbour was born Oct. 30, 1952, but getting a birth certificate to prove it has transformed him into other people and brought him back from places he’s never been.
From the government misspelling his name, to misidentifying his date of birth, to having declared him dead in Quebec City, Arbour has spent four years trying to get an accurate version of the foundational document that proves his identity. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/identity-documentation-challenges-1.6585803
Corrupted Records in Montreal
In 1940s Quebec, lax anti-trafficking laws meant it was not illegal to buy or sell children. Many adoptees had their records corrupted to appeal to would-be adopters.
https://maisonneuve.org/article/2017/07/18/black-market-babies/
Senate of Canada Report – the Shame is Ours: Forced Adoption of Babies of Unmarried Mothers. It is estimated that at least 300,000 babies were taken and that denying parents the right to fill the birth registrations fully was a tactic designed to force adoption upon them. https://sencanada.ca/en/info-page/parl-42-1/soci-adoption-mandate/
Judge’s Ruling in full for the 60’s Scoop Lawsuit
Looking in Ontario gave evidence for this lawsuit. It was considered by the judge that practices such as not informing Indigenous adoptees of their ethnic background constituted the removal of identity that “caused great harm”. Many would consider this to be “Cultural Genocide”. Removing father’s names from the original birth registrations is considered a deletion of identity and heritage by the UN. The Canadian Federal government lost the case and was forced to pay compensation.
There has been no apology.
Canada’s Justice system – Poor rankings for access, affordability, delays, and discrimination
When it comes to access to civil justice, affordability and delays, Canada is remarkably low in world rankings according to the World Justice Project. This makes it almost impossible for many to try to go through the provincial court system without the kindness of a pro-bono lawyer (not easy to find one as Looking in Ontario has found).
Canada is shamefully low in some areas of justice, given that it is one of the richest countries in the world. It seems that one has to be very rich to access it (not to mention the years that cases seem to take – eg. 12 years for the 60’s Scoop lawsuit). It is prohibitively expensive for any adoptee or original parents to go to court to make any individual corrections on the original birth registrations (and there is no guarantee the judge will side with the adoptee).
When Looking in Ontario asked on behalf of one adoptee, the quotes were in the region of 10,000 to 20,000 Canadian dollars 15 years ago. It is hard to imagine just how much more it would cost now. There is clearly no justice for the less wealthy, especially for something that should not have cost anything at all in the first place. Canada’s legal system really does not afford any “justice” when the cost is so high as to be out of reach for most people.
The system clearly discriminates against adoptees and their original families, as well as the less wealthy in general.
Here are some of those rankings from the World Justice project.
Canada – Justice Rankings that are low
Civil justice is free of discrimination: 78th out of 142 countries
People can access and afford civil justice: 64th out of 142 countries
Civil justice is not subject to unreasonable delay: 58th out of 142 countries
https://worldjusticeproject.org/rule-of-law-index/country/2023/Canada/Civil%20Justice/
Ontario’s Justice System – Tribunal’s Refusal to hear Adoptees, Parents (2010)
In 2010, a group of adoptees and parents went to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario to ask if they could go to them to challenge the father’s name on the original registration issue.
The group members were told that they have no right to do that as it involves adoption. One person was told that “adoptees have no rights”.
None of them were allowed to enter a complaint about this matter through that route. It seems that the human right to challenge the Ontario government this way is not allowed for people with a connection to adoption.
The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario – they refused to help this group.
Human Rights Legal Support Centre at the time also refused to help this group (the HRLSC site does not seem to be working at this time, although they do have a Facebook page)
Here is an Ontario Government page about them.
https://www.pas.gov.on.ca/Home/Agency/444
DOCIP – Documentation Centre for Indigenous Peoples (2014)
Page 18
“In the context of indigenous child removal policies, LIO (Looking in Ontario) urge that historical information be protected from being deleted, that manipulated records be corrected and that there be no time limit to make these corrections, in order to allow survivors and their families to find each other.”
Bill 87 – Amendment to the Vital Statistics Act (of Ontario)
Extend Access to Post Adoption Birth Information (to Next of Kin of Deceased Adoptee/Parent)
Submission to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 2012
This is the submission that I made to the UN Committee on the Right of the Child at the UN in 2012. It goes through Ontario law from 1960 and 1970.
It is about the illegal removal of information from birth registrations, known as “Elements of Identity”. The UN committee went on to include it in its report in its review on Canada and called for Canada and Ontario to restore the illegally removed father’s names.
Links to our web site pages
LOOKING IN ONTARIO 