Origins Canada (full name: Origins Canada: Supporting Those Separated by Adoption) is a Canadian federal non profit organization providing support and resources to people who have been separated from a family member by adoption practices, including natural parents, persons adopted, and other family members. It was founded in 2002 as a branch of Origins International, which is based in New South Wales, Australia.
Origins Canada provides services including an online search-and-reunion registry, support groups, peer support for those separated by adoption, and a first-contact service for reuniting families. [1]
The stated Aims and Objectives of the organization are:
The organization advocates for a federal inquiry/committee to investigate illegal, unethical and human rights abuses in adoption practice in Canada. A sister organization Origins Australia, obtained two State Inquiries, and finally, a National Senate Inquiry which culminated in an apology to those separated by adoption from the Prime Minister of Australia on March 21, 2013, for adoption policies which included illegal and unethical practices as well as human rights abuses. The policies and practices uncovered by the Australian Inquiry mirror those experienced by over 350,000 women in Canada systematically separated from their children by adoption during the post WWII decades because of their unmarried status. In October 2013 Origins Canada hosted a meeting with MPs in Ottawa to educate and formally request a Senate Inquiry/Committee to Investigate. A meeting was held on June 15, 2012, with the major Canadian churches at United Church Headquarters entitled "A Way Forward". In attendance were high level executives of every major Canadian church involved in Maternity Homes in Canada including Catholic, Presbyterian, Anglican, United, and Salvation Army.
The United Church of Canada is developing a liturgy for those separated by adoption in conjunction with Origins Canada. See their website for further information on the United Church response. (United Church of Canada website: https://web.archive.org/web/20131211200941/http://www.united-church.ca/communications/news/general/131122 )
Currently only four provinces and one territory have open adoption records: Ontario, B.C., Alberta, Newfoundland and Yukon Territory.
In 2010, Origins Canada made a presentation to the Toronto and East York Community Council supporting the preservation of the heritage building at 450 Pape Avenue. [2] For part of its history, this building was operated by the Salvation Army as a maternity facility for the confinement of unwed pregnant mothers.
On May 16, 2011, Origins Canada, represented by its Executive Director, Valerie Andrews, presented to the Ontario Legislature's Standing Committee on Social Policy, regarding Bill 179, "Building Families and Supporting Youth to be Successful Act, 2011." The presentation raised concerns that key stakeholders who would be affected by the act were not consulted about it, and that the rights of natural parents would be jeopardized, with the law permitting babies to be apprehended at birth, only 30 days before the child becomes available for adoption by a Children's Aid Society, no guarantee of notice being given to the parents of the adoption hearing, and no means for the parents to contest the adoption. [3]
The Stolen Generations were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian federal and state government agencies and church missions, under acts of their respective parliaments. The removals of those referred to as "half-caste" children were conducted in the period between approximately 1905 and 1967, although in some places mixed-race children were still being taken into the 1970s.
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from the biological parents to the adoptive parents.
Parental leave, or family leave, is an employee benefit available in almost all countries. The term "parental leave" may include maternity, paternity, and adoption leave; or may be used distinctively from "maternity leave" and "paternity leave" to describe separate family leave available to either parent to care for small children. In some countries and jurisdictions, "family leave" also includes leave provided to care for ill family members. Often, the minimum benefits and eligibility requirements are stipulated by law.
Beginning in 1942, the internment of Japanese Canadians occurred when over 22,000 Japanese Canadians—comprising over 90% of the total Japanese Canadian population—from British Columbia were forcibly relocated and interned in the name of national security. The majority were Canadian citizens by birth. This decision followed the events of the Japanese invasions of British Hong Kong and Malaya, the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and the subsequent Canadian declaration of war on Japan during World War II. This forced relocation subjected many Japanese Canadians to government-enforced curfews and interrogations, job and property losses, and forced repatriation to Japan.
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.
Home Children was the child migration scheme founded by Annie MacPherson in 1869, under which more than 100,000 children were sent from the United Kingdom to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa. The programme was largely discontinued in the 1930s, but not entirely terminated until the 1970s.
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. 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.
Freedom of religion in Canada is a constitutionally protected right, allowing believers the freedom to assemble and worship without limitation or interference.
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.
The Salvation Army Toronto Grace Health Centre is a 150-bed hospital located at 650 Church Street in Toronto, Ontario. Owned and operated by the Salvation Army, it specializes in palliative care, post-acute care rehabilitation, and complex continuing care.
The Baby Scoop Era was a period in anglosphere history starting after the end of World War II and ending in the early 1970s, characterized by an increasing rate of pre-marital pregnancies over the preceding period, along with a higher rate of newborn adoption.
Forgotten Australians is a contested term applied by some to the estimated 500,000 children and child migrants who experienced care in institutions or outside a home setting in Australia during the 20th century. The Australian Senate used the term specifically when reporting on its 2003–2004 "Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care".
The Sixties Scoop was a period in which a series of policies were enacted in Canada that enabled child welfare authorities to take, or "scoop up," Indigenous children from their families and communities for placement in foster homes, from which they would be adopted by white families. Despite its name referencing the 1960s, the Sixties Scoop began in the mid-to-late 1950s and persisted into the 1980s.
Law in Australia with regard to children is often based on what is considered to be in the best interest of the child. The traditional and often used assumption is that children need both a mother and a father, which plays an important role in divorce and custodial proceedings, and has carried over into adoption and fertility procedures. As of April 2018 all Australian states and territories allow adoption by same-sex couples.
The Salvation Army in Canada is the Canadian territory of a Christian church that is known for its charity work, with a motto of Giving Hope Today. The Salvation Army was formed in 1865 in London, England, and it began working in Canada in 1882. Today, it operates in 400 communities across Canada and in Bermuda. The Salvation Army Archives are in Toronto, and the Salvation Army's Training College is in Winnipeg.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to adoption:
Forced adoption in Australia was the practice of taking babies from unmarried mothers, against their will, and placing them for adoption. In 2012 the Australian Senate Inquiry Report into Forced Adoption Practices found that babies were taken illegally by doctors, nurses, social workers and religious figures, sometimes with the assistance of adoption agencies or other authorities, and adopted to married couples. Some mothers were coerced, drugged and illegally had their consent taken. Many of these adoptions occurred after the mothers were sent away by their families 'due to the stigma associated with being pregnant and unmarried'. The removals occurred predominantly in the second half of the twentieth century. According to Sydney Morning Herald journalist, Marissa Calligeros, it was a practice which has been described as 'institutionalised baby farming'. In evidence given to the New South Wales Parliamentary Inquiry into Adoption, Centrecare's Chief Social Researcher was quoted as admitting to "a stolen white generation."
Forced adoption is the practice of removing children permanently from their parents and the subsequent adoption of those children, following intervention by the Children's Services department of a Local Authority in the United Kingdom. Former British Member of Parliament John Hemming is a long-standing and vocal critic of the system and estimates that "over 1000" of the 1,360 adoptions carried out without the parents' consent in 2010 may have been undertaken "wrongly".
LGBT parents in Canada have undergone significant progress in terms of both legal and social acceptance. Same-sex couples who wish for parenthood now enjoy equally the possibilities, responsibilities and rights of opposite-sex couples. Following the nationwide legalization of same-sex marriage in 2005, the number of LGBT families in Canada has increased substantially, paving the way for same-sex couples' aspirations of having their own children. Legal methods of assisted reproduction range from insemination via IVF through to surrogacy arrangements.
Birth mothers in South Korea refers to the group of biological mothers whose children were given up for adoption in South Korea's international adoption practice. The decades-long phenomenon of international adoption in South Korea began after the Korean War. In the years since the war, South Korea has become the largest and longest provider of children placed for international adoption, with 165,944 recorded Korean adoptees living in 14 countries, primarily in North America and Western Europe, as of 2014.