Barriers to Contact: current policy

In the past, if you wished to make contact with a birth relative ( parents, grandparents, siblings or adopted child), you could place you name on the Adoption Disclosure Register. If there was a match, in other words someone you have listed is also on the list, you were notified. Actual adoption searches by the Ministry were started in 1986 at which time you could register for a search if the birth relative being sought was not on the register. The wait times for a search have varied considerably over the years. We have first hand knowledge of a 10 year wait time. However, once you were selected your records were opened and the ministry conducted a search. Personal experience with this process revealed that it was a quick and simple process taking less than 1 week to complete.

Under the new act however, if you do not find a "match" on the Adoption Disclosure Registry, the onus will be on the searching party to find the individual they are seeking. The ministry will no longer complete searches. Speaking as an Ontario adoptee who attempted to find a birth parent independently, I can attest to the fact that the searching process without government documents is not always an easy process. There may be an considerable amount of time involved in a search. Organizations such as Parent Finders offered some"laymen" assistance to those searching in terms of providing suggestions etc. When I could no longer afford the search time, I hired an "expert" to assist me at the cost of several hundred dollars.

The barriers that are faced include name changes ( in my case 2), cross country or international moves etc. Therefore, the reality is that without the benefit of the CAS searches, people may face some fairly significant hurdles in terms of time, effort and cost to track down birth relatives. There is also the matter of literacy, and possible language barriers. This may prohibit some people entirely. It may also create a spin off industry of "search experts". D.

Contact Preferences: current policy

According to Service Ontario, A notice of contact preference lets your birth parent know how you want to be contacted. You must file a separate notice of contact preference for each birth parent. In a notice of contact preference, you can say that you’d like to be contacted by e-mail or by telephone, by letter or through a third party.
The only contact information that your birth parent will see is the information you provide on the statement page of the application, so this is where you can make it easier to get in contact with you through providing an address or phone number, and also any information you don’t want the other party to have should not be included in the notice.
Unlike no contact notices, notices of contact preference are not binding and there are no repercussions to not adhering to the preferences. This means that the other party is not legally required to contact you the way you requested. To see examples of the forms and guides available to those wanting to file a notice of contact preference, please see the Service Ontario website at: http://www.gov.on.ca/ont/portal/!ut/p/.cmd/cs/.ce/7_0_A/.s/7_0_252/_s.7_0_A/7_0_252/_l/en?docid=111872.
While the ability to request that contact be made through a third party with a certain amount of notice does allow the mediation and preparation piece to take place, the fact that the preferences are not binding is problematic and does not create an effective solution to the removal of mediation from the reunion process.

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What do you get if there is no veto?

If you are an adopted adult, over the age of 18, you will be able to apply for a copy of your original birth registration and your adoption order as of June 1, 2009. This information can be released only if there is no disclosure veto registered by the birth parents. If you apply for it, you will receive your original birth name, show where you were born, and give you the name of your birth parents. Actually many adopted people already know their birth name, and they all would know the city of their birth from their birth certificates. Many also know the first names of their birth parents.

Birth parents will be able to apply for information from the adoption order and from original and substituted birth registrations, as of June 1, 2009, if their child is over the age of 19. Once again, if a disclosure veto was registered before June 1, 2009, the information cannot be released. Birth parents will be given the new adoptive name of the child they placed for adoption and the order would show where the adoption took place. It would not provide the name or the address of the adoptive parents. It would also not provide an address for the adopted person.

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Disclosure, Non-identifying Information

Non-identifying information has long been available for anyone who was adopted. This will not change, even if there is a disclosure veto in place. In fact, if there is veto registered, the person registering the veto should have updated the social and medical information so you should be able to get that information in non-identifying form, in addition to historical information without names, addresses or identifying details.

If you are an adult looking for non-identifying information about your own history, you should contact the Children’s Aid Society where your adoption took place. You will be able to obtain the information that was available at the time of your adoption. If your adoption was a Private adoption, you would apply directly to the Ministry for your non-identifying adoption information. The non identifying information includes everything that your birth family shared with the agency or the adoption worker, to be passed on to you. It should give information about how old your birth parents were when you were born, a physical description; and information about their personality, interests, education, type of work and about their relationship. It should give information about why you were placed for adoption. It would tell you if you have any siblings older than yourself and would list younger siblings if they were born before your adoption was finalized. It would usually give some information about your parents, grandparents, and extended family and provide the medical information that was known at the time.

Many people find that it is most helpful to receive the information summarized into one document rather than redacted (photocopied) bits of information because the information is more cohesive and in context for the reader.

In the past 20 to 30 years, most people received all of the non-identifying information that was available at the time of placement. Some people may have lost their information and some people were not given the information by their adoptive families. It is still available. Even if your adoption took place 50 or 75 or more years ago, you can still contact the Society where your adoption took place and they will be happy to share it with you. You will be asked to provide identification to ensure that your information is only released to you.

What if I am looking for information about someone else?

Maybe you are looking for information about your sibling, your deceased parent, or about the adoptive family who adopted your child. The same process is in place. You would make a request to the Agency where the Adoption took place. You, as an adult, would need to provide identification to demonstrate your connection. Once again, Non identifying information would be shared as appropriate.

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What do you get when a disclosure veto has been filed?

In the case of a disclosure veto, i f one or more birth parent or adopted adult child has filed a disclosure veto then the release of identifying information relating to the birth parent or child that filed is withheld. When a disclosure veto has been filed, the only information to be released is a copy of the disclosure veto which can include any statement that was filed by the parent or adopted child. This may include birth parents medical history ( see previous post on medical info), or family history as well as reasons for not wanting the identifying information released.


In the case where two birth parents are listed in the birth records, if only one files a disclosure veto there is the possibility that the adopted child may be able to learn about the identity of the "vetoed " parent via the identified birth parent. Of course, the $50,000 fine for contact would likely apply to this situation if an attempt to contact were made. D.

Barriers to vetoing

The process by which either the birth parent or the adoptee can file a disclosure veto is fairly simple. There is a form provided on the Government of Ontario website that can be filled, printed, then mailed, delivered or couriered to the office of the registrar general. There is a toll free phone number provided on the form that an applicant can call for assistance if necessary. There are guides provided on the same web page for adoptees and birth parents as to how to complete the form in case there are questions. These, and the form, are available at; http://www.forms.ssb.gov.on.ca/mbs/ssb/forms/ssbforms.nsf/FormDetail?OpenForm&ACT=RDR&TAB=PROFILE&ENV=WWE&NO=007-11318E
A person with a visual disability would need assistance with the application, as would someone with a disability relating to literacy or a person who does not speak English or French well. The forms are available on the website in both official languages. Any of these people can call the toll-free number available on the form for assistance in completing it.
One barrier that could be significant to some applicants is the need for a mailing address at which government correspondence can be received in a timely manner in order for the application to be processed. For applicants who don’t have a local mailbox for a variety of reasons, this could be a problem since they need to file their veto within the specific time frame of the adoptees 19th year. If they are out of the country or are experiencing some level of homelessness this could become a problem for the processing of their application.

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violations of the veto

If you do not want the adopted person to contact you, you may file a no contact notice. If the child you gave for adoption violates the notice by trying to contact you, he or she could be fined up to $50,000.
An adopted child can still apply for post-adoption birth information, which includes identifying information, possibly including the child’s name prior to adoption and the name(s) of the birth parent(s).
Post-adoption birth information services include:
· Copies of adoption orders and Ontario birth registrations for adopted adults
· Information from adoption orders and Ontario birth registrations for birth parents
· Disclosure vetoes for adopted adults and birth parents to protect their privacy.
· No contact notices for adopted adults and birth parents who don’t want to be contacted by each other.
· Notices of contact preference for adopted adults and birth parents who know how they want to be contacted.
If the adopted person requests post-adoption birth information (beginning June 1, 2009), your no contact notice will be released with it, and to access it, the adopted person must sign an agreement not to contact you. This signed agreement is binding and subject to the $50,000 fine. Birth parents and adoptees must file a disclosure veto if they do not want the other party to know their name.
http://www.gov.on.ca/

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