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The Adoption Disclosure Register (ADR) is an adoption reunion registry operated by the government of Ontario, Canada. It implements the adoption disclosure provisions of the Child and Family Services Act.
An adoption reunion registry is a formal mechanism where adoptees and their birth family members can be reunited. Registries may be free or charge fees, be facilitated by non-profit organizations, government agencies or private businesses.
Ontario is one of the 13 provinces and territories of Canada. Located in Central Canada, it is Canada's most populous province accounting for 38.3 percent of the country's population, and is the second-largest province in total area. Ontario is fourth-largest jurisdiction in total area when the territories of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut are included. It is home to the nation's capital city, Ottawa, and the nation's most populous city, Toronto, which is also Ontario's provincial capital.
Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres, making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Its southern border with the United States, stretching some 8,891 kilometres (5,525 mi), is the world's longest bi-national land border. Canada's capital is Ottawa, and its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.
Under Ontario law prior to November 2005, the identity of birth parents was not given out to adoptees, nor was the identity of adoptees given out to birth relatives. Either party seeking to make contact may apply to have their name placed on the register.
The register offers two distinct services: passive and active search. In all cases other than medical emergencies, identifying information is never given out before consent is obtained from both parties.
A passive search is simply a list, maintained by the Ministry of Community and Social Services, of adoptees and birth relatives who have requested contact with their birth relatives. When both an adoptee and a birth relative of an adoptee appears on the list, officials alert both to this and contact details are exchanged. Any adoptee or birth relative may request a passive search.
An active search must be done at the request of an adoptee. Government employees who have access to the original name of a specified birth relative (mother, father, grandfather, etc.) then attempt to locate and contact this person. If successful, they ask whether this person desires contact with the adoptee. If so, contact details are exchanged; if not, the adoptee is informed of this and no contact information is given.
The right to request an active search is only offered to adoptees, not birth relatives. However, since the time resources expended in an active search are considerable, there is presently a long queue of outstanding requests for active searches.
While it implements the relevant legislation correctly, the ADR has received significant amounts of criticism from adoptees and birth relatives for being slow and unreliable. The active search for birth relatives is dependent on government resources, and the waiting list for active search can be as long as a decade.
Frustration with the ADR was the primary motivation for the passing of the Adoption Information Disclosure Act in November 2005. This act, when implemented, will unseal adoption records, allowing individuals to take the initiative of contacting birth relatives.
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.
After the bill's passage, Ontario Social Services Minister Madeleine Meilleur announced the ADR will close once the bill is implemented, beginning with the cessation of active search requests on April 26, 2006.
Madeleine Meilleur is a Canadian nurse, lawyer and former politician in Ontario, Canada. She was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 2003 to 2016. She represented the riding of Ottawa—Vanier. She was a cabinet minister in the governments of Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne.
This proposed closure of the ADR was criticized by the groups that had campaigned for the act's passage, on the basis that the ADR provided important services, such as conducting searches and coordinating reunions, which would be necessary even when records are unsealed.
The Adoption Information Disclosure Act was ruled unconstitutional by an Ontario Superior Court judge and set aside in September 2007, two days after its provisions took effect. The Ontario government has announced that it will not appeal that decision.
As of November 2007, neither the new procedures that were to allow adoptees access to their long form birth certificates on the same basis as all other persons, nor the previous location services under the ADR were available.
A criminal record, police record, and colloquially rap sheet is a record of a person's criminal history. The information included in a criminal record and the existence of a criminal record varies between countries and even between jurisdictions within a country. In most cases it lists all non-expunged criminal offences and may also include traffic offences such as speeding and drunk driving. In some countries the record is limited to actual convictions, while in others it also includes arrests, charges dismissed, charges pending and charges of which the individual has been acquitted.
The international adoption of South Korean children was triggered by casualties of the Korean War after 1953. The initiative was taken by religious organizations in the United States, Australia, and many Western European nations, and eventually developed into various apparatus that sustained adoption as a socially integrated system.
A family reunion is an occasion when many members of an extended family congregate. Sometimes reunions are held regularly, for example on the same date of every year.
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (c.36) is an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that creates a public "right of access" to information held by public authorities. It is the implementation of freedom of information legislation in the United Kingdom on a national level. Its application is limited in Scotland to UK Government offices geo-located in Scotland. The Act implements a manifesto commitment of the Labour Party in the 1997 general election, developed by Dr David Clark as a 1997 White Paper. The final version of the Act is believed to have been diluted from that proposed while Labour was in opposition. The full provisions of the act came into force on 1 January 2005.
Closed adoption is a process by which an infant is adopted by another family, and the record of the biological parent(s) is kept sealed. Often, the biological father is not recorded—even on the original birth certificate. An adoption of an older child who already knows his or her biological parent(s) cannot be made closed or secret. This used to be the most traditional and popular type of adoption, peaking in the decades of the post-World War II Baby Scoop Era. It still exists today, but it exists alongside the practice of open adoption. The sealed records effectively prevent the adoptee and the biological parents from finding, or even knowing anything about each other. The International Association of Adopted People does not support any form of closed adoption because it believes that closed adoption is detrimental to the psychological wellbeing of the adopted child. However, the emergence of non-profit organizations and private companies to assist individuals with their sealed records has been effective in helping people who want to connect with biological relatives to do so.
Ann Cavoukian is the former Information and Privacy Commissioner for the Canadian province of Ontario. Her concept of privacy by design, which takes privacy into account throughout the system engineering process, was expanded on, as part of a joint Canadian-Dutch team, both before and during her tenure as commissioner.
In the United States, adoption is permanently placing a minor with a parent or parents other than the birth parents.
Open adoption is a form of adoption in which the biological and adoptive families have access to varying degrees of each other's personal information and have an option of contact. In Open Adoption, the adoptive parents hold all the rights as the legal parents, yet the individuals of the biological and adoptive families may exercise the option to open the contact in varying forms: from just sending mail and/or photos, to face-to-face visits between birth and adoptive families.
The Canadian Council of Natural Mothers (CCNM) is a Canadian lobby group for the rights of women who have placed children for adoption, founded in 1999. It is opposed to most continuing adoption practices, arguing that adoption is traumatic for mothers and frequently does not benefit their children as currently practised. To support mothers, CCNM maintains an active email group which discusses issues which pertain to those who have experienced adoption loss and those who may be in reunion with lost family members. Members of the CCNM also at attend adoption related conferences, government meetings and meetings with social services agencies to educate people about the experiences of natural mothers and argue for improved policies, practices and rights of mothers and adopted people.
Sealed birth records refers to the practice of sealing the original birth certificate upon adoption or legitimation, often making a copy of the record unavailable except by court order. Upon finalization of the adoption, the original birth certificate is sealed and replaced with an amended birth certificate declaring the adoptee to be the child of his or her adoptive parents, "as if" born to them. Many states, provinces and countries adopted this practice in the early to mid-20th century with the aim of protecting the adopted person from the shame of an illegitimate birth. Sealed or closed birth records are generally associated with closed adoption. Open records is generally referred to as the practice of opening original birth records to adult adoptees, and should not be confused with open adoption, which can occur with or without sealed records, depending on the laws of the state or province in which it is carried out.
Genealogical bewilderment is a term referring to potential identity problems that could be experienced by a child who was either fostered, adopted, or conceived via an assisted reproductive technology procedure such as surrogacy or gamete donation.
Adoption disclosure refers to the official release of information relating to the legal adoption of a child. Throughout much of the 20th century, many Western countries had legislation intended to prevent adoptees and adoptive families from knowing the identities of birth parents and vice versa. After a decline in the social stigma surrounding adoption, many Western countries changed laws to allow for the release of formerly secret birth information, usually with limitations.
The Uniform Adoption Act (1994) is a model law proposed by the U.S. Uniform Law Commission. It attempts to "be a comprehensive and uniform state adoption code that:
The Access to Adoption Records Act, is an Ontario (Canada) law passed in 2008 regarding the disclosure of information between parties involved in adoptions. It is the successor to the 2005 Adoption Information Disclosure Act, parts of which were struck down in 2007 in a ruling by Judge Edward Belobaba of the Ontario Superior Court. The bill passed third reading on May 14, 2008.
The International Soundex Reunion Registry, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, tax exempt, humanitarian organization founded in 1975 by Emma May Vilardi. ISRR is a free mutual consent adoption reunion registry for persons desiring a reunion with next-of-kin. This agency serves the needs of family members who have been separated from each other by adoption, divorce, foster care, abandonment, or other means.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to adoption:
This article on refers to Adoption within the Philippine context. For the general term, see Adoption.
The Toronto Star is a Canadian broadsheet daily newspaper. Based on 2015 statistics, it is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper on overall weekly circulation; although it is a close second to The Globe and Mail in daily circulation on weekdays, it overtakes the Globe in weekly circulation because the Globe does not publish a Sunday edition. The Toronto Star is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands division.