QUEBEC

   Update - Report recommends adoptees should have right to know the identities of their            birthparents.

In the January 25, 2000 edition of the Montreal Gazette, an article appeared as follows:

MONTREAL (CP) - Quebec may become the second Province to open its adoption records, giving adoptees the right to know the identities of their birth parents, Global News reported Monday.

Global said the recommendation is in an unreleased Government report to be presented next month to Giles Baril, Provincial Minister responsible for youth protection.

The study was commissioned in March 1998 by the Health and Justice Ministries. Its recommendations will be reviewed this Spring and, if adopted, would make Quebec and British Columbia the only Canadian provinces with open adoption records.

The report also suggests that birth parents and adoptees be allowed to remain anonymous by allowing them a veto to keep their files sealed.

"You know, I'd like to know who I am" said Dawn Upfold, a Montrealer who has spend 10 years seeking her biological family.  "They have the info.  They have a file and I can't get at it."

That should change says the report written by Vital Simard, a planning adviser to the Minsitry of Health and Social Services.

More than 200,000 Quebecers were adopted in the last 50 years.

Current adoption laws are designed to protect the privacy of birth parents.  But the report says the laws were drafted in a different era when unwed mothers faced severe social stigmas.

Simard's report also suggests that adoptees should have the right to know their lineage in order to screen for genetic diseases.

Any changes to the adoption laws would require amendments to the province's Civil Code and its Youth Protection Act.

PROVINCIAL SERVICES:

To get non-identifying information (called Antecedents biologiques) you have to contact the provincial government agency which has your file:  A good place to start is at:

                  
              Service for "Antecedents biologiques." (514) 896-3155 [answering machine]

These are the offices for the Greater Montreal Area.  There are smaller, local offices around the province.  These locations will give you information on where to contact if your adoption was completed outside Montreal.

Concerning adoptions that went through English/Jewish agencies (called "Children Service Center", "Ville-Marie Social Services", "Red Feather Agency", Children Aid Society of Montreal", and Jewish Family Services), these are handled by the branch in the West Island (see Batshaw Social Services Centre above)  

IDENTIFYING INFORMATION:  Subject to Active Registry.

NON-IDENTIFYING INFORMATION:  Available, but as of January 1999 the the Centre was years behind the requests.

FEES: Effective October 2007, all Centres de Jeunesse agencies in Quebec no longer charge for post adoption search and reunion services.  For more information email pfncr@yahoo.com or call Parent Finders - National Capital Region at (613) 730-8305.  

PASSIVE REGISTRY:  Because of limited staffing, Batshaw gives priority to reunions requested for medical reasons and where the birth parent is more than 70 years old.  If there is a corresponding applicant, a match is generally made within six months.  Service is available to adoptees and birth parents.

ACTIVE SEARCH:   Active search done on behalf of Adult Adoptees and Birth Relatives.

There's a "Projet Pilote" (Trial project) at the Batshaw Social Services Centre in conjunction with Mouvement Retrouvailles where the social worker will trace your birth mother and ask her if she wishes contact and would agree to a reunion..  By law they are only allowed to INFORM her, and cannot SOLICIT!

They will advise her on the different avenues of contact (anonymous, letters, etc....).  With this Project, you have to pay the social worker (government does not assume their fees or expenses for that service). They will have files for all legal adoptions. Those made from private sources outside the government agencies (called in those years "Societe d'adoption et de protection de l'enfance") are unfortunately not accessible by them.

COST:           $150 fee for localization, tracking down;
                      $180 fee paid in two installments for preparation and counseling prior to the reunion;
                      $120 fee for the reunion.

If the birthmother refuses contact , you will not pay the $300 fee - you will only pay the $150 fee.  The social workers are not allowed to make a second contact.  However, the birth mother can change her mind anytime (even years after), and call the social services.

In addition, we wish to inform Quebec searchers in the Hull area of a new reunion service being provided by Hull Social Services (C.P.E.J.Outaouais) at 105, boul. Sacre-Coeur, Hull (Quebec) J8X 1C5. Once you register and pay a fee, Hull Social Services will attempt to make contact with a birthmother or adoptee and see if they desire to be reunited. If both agree, Hull Social Services will then facilitate the reunion. You can call the C.P.E.J. Outaouais in Hull @ 819-771-6631 (or 1-800-567-6810) and ask for the social worker handling the adoptee/birthparent reunion registry.

COUNSELING:  Prior to reunion but details were not provided.

STAFFING:  Limited

APPLICATION FOR SERVICE:  Through the addresses listed above.

ACCESS/OPENNESS:  Access to adoption records - As of 1998 - 99, Quebec is reviewing its Adoption policy.   See   http://www.PFMTL.org   for more information.

SEARCH & SUPPORT GROUPS:

Provide search, reunion and support services to adult adoptees, birth parents and adopting parents.  All persons joining this group will have the benefit, if they choose, of having their birth information entered in the Parent Finders of Canada, Canadian Adoption Reunion Register (CARR) which presently contains over 56,000 entries from adult adoptees, birth parents, birth siblings and grandparents and adopting parents.

Mouvement Retrouvailles

They will tell you which Chapter to contact, depending on where your adoption was completed.

Cost is $35 first year and $10/annum renewal. Mouvement Retrouvailles will send a full provincial mailing list of Centre de Services Sociaux (Social Services) for all regions of the province.

Mouvement Retrouvailles is a Provincial non-profit, non-government, volunteer association. They have been in existence since February 1983. Their members are mostly adoptees and birth mothers. It is also a support group and they have made representations and lobbied the Quebec government asking for changes to the Adoption Act.  In June 1991 and December 1995 they produced 2 TV specials.  

Before their political actions, records were sealed, and reunions were discouraged. It would take years before adoptees would get very skimmed non-identifying information sheets.

Mouvement Retrouvailles's passive registry has 11,000 members. To be a member it cost is $35 first year ($25 for inscription fee + a $10 annual membership fee) and a $10/annum renewal fee. The passive register is the only way to possibly be reunited other than hiring the social worker.  If birth mother refuses contact, or if she is deceased then there are no other means to get your identifying information.  Mouvement Retrouvailles is seeking changes in the law to allow social workers to contact birth family members (birth sibling(s) when birth mother is deceased. Until the government agrees to change the law, all hopes of reunion with the birth family cease with her death. The law as currently written requires her to sign a consent form on lifting the confidentiality seal.

Quebec Adoption Quest

Quebec Adoption Quest® mutual consent registry was created for one purpose..... to cut through all the nonsense. How many of you are really frustrated and angry with existing adoption laws here in Quebec? Quebec Adoption Quest® wants to take the quest of finding lost family members directly to you, the people, without the bureaucratic red tape, without the courts, without the expense and without the long wait.

Quebec Adoption Quest® mutual consent registry was created for you...... as such we need you, we need your support. A mandatory fee of $15.00/year (money order or certified cheque) is required in order to register. This is a small price to pay for several hundred immediate chances at finding the person you are searching for. With each new registration the chances improve. Registrations are effective immediately upon the receipt of fees, waiver and information.

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Page last updated: July 10, 2008