Adoption Information Disclosure Act
Canadian law regarding adoptions
The Adoption Information Disclosure Act, formally An Act respecting the disclosure of information and records to adopted persons and birth parents, also known as Bill 183, is an Ontario, Canada, law regarding the disclosure of information between parties involved in adoptions.
The Act was passed by the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in 2005 and put into force on September 17, 2007. Significant sections of it were quashed just two days later in a ruling by Judge Edward Belobaba of the Ontario Superior Court.
On November 13, 2007, the Ontario government announced that instead of appealing Belobaba's decision, it would opt to amend the act to contain a universal disclosure veto. It accordingly introduced the Access to Adoption Records Act on December 10, 2007, which passed third reading in May 2008 and took effect in September 2008.
Background
From 1927 until the mid-1980s, certain measures existed in Ontario to preserve anonymity between birth parents and adoptees; this was consistent with adoption practice elsewhere in Canada and the United States at that time.
The practice was reduced but not eliminated for current adoptions, but there remained the question of what to do with existing adoption records: how does the right to information for either party compare with the obligation of honouring past commitments to privacy?
Adoptees and birth parents could apply to be put onto the government-run Adoption Disclosure Register, but the process was long, the resources for active searches for birth relatives were limited, and success was not guaranteed.
NDP MPP Marilyn Churley introduced several bills into the Legislative Assembly starting in the late 1990s. Her strong stance for open records was personally motivated, as she had placed a child for adoption years earlier and was later reunited with him.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Adoption Information Disclosure Act” is canadian law regarding adoptions. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Adoption, Information and Disclosure, not as a finished interpretation.
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This entry incorporates text from “Adoption Information Disclosure Act” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.