Meanwhile, a Few Canadians Didn’t Get the Memo

I’ve seen some doozy and dumb bills in the last few years, but a bill introduced yesterday in the province of Prince Edward Island in Canada is one of the dooziest. I’ll jump straight to the point: it creates disclosure vetoes, adds an electrified third-rail contact preference form, and uses the threat of a year’s jail time and $5,000 in fines to enforce the contact preference form, including prohibiting the adoptee from “publish[ing] any identifying information about the person who provided the contact preference.”

Oh, and it doesn’t even release an original birth record. Instead, PEI’s vital records office sends over “prescribed information” from the birth record to the PEI adoption czar and then the adoption czar controls the release of that “prescribed information” so long as there are no disclosure vetoes, the electrified third-rail contact preference form is in order, and everyone agrees to be good little adopted people.

This bill is toxic.

Like, punitively toxic and protective primarily of government bureaucracy and adoption agency social workers who are all in a tizzy about “privacy,” despite the memo sitting on their desk right now that says “RE: Should We Tell the Boss About DNA and the Googles?”

It turns out they did get the memo, but they ultimately don’t care. In a 140+ page report running up to the introduction of this bill, the current reality of this issue is explicitly spelled out on page 47:

The Advisory Committee was told a story of one birth mother whose identity was uncovered by their adult child by making an appeal on social media. This person expressed how unsettling the experience was. The birth mother’s identity was publicly revealed on social media, and in a rural PEI town this meant that the news would quickly spread among neighbours, and more importantly to the family. With children who had not known they had an older half-sibling who had been adopted, the birth mother had mere hours to prepare herself to share the news with her family.

In response to overwhelming evidence that continued iron-clad secrecy is harmful to all those involved in an adoption, the government punts. And, by doing so, it actually makes it worse, much worse. Now, with the ability of people in this bill to file criminally enforceable contact preference forms, the scenario outlined to the advisory committee above—using publicly available social media and DNA— may now be considered criminal behavior. Thus, anyone who seriously thinks about this issue and what this proposed bill does would come out with one conclusion: don’t touch it. Don’t apply for anything. Because if you do, you may be criminally prohibited from doing much of anything afterwards, specifically if a contact preference form has been filed. In other words, you are better off not seeking information through this bill. Rather, you should carry on with trying to find your own birth information by using DNA registries and social media. For that, you don’t have to sign away any of your rights.

The PEI bill is ultimately a bait and switch built on top of a toxic electrified fence intended to constrain adoptees. It’s similar to those silent fences people install in their own backyards to shock their dogs if they try to go beyond an owner’s expectation. Sure, the barrier in this bill may be “visible” through vetoes and contact preference forms but it’s enforced by what PEI calls an “undertaking”— a signed commitment, criminally enforceable, that an adult adopted person will not stray from his or her own backyard. And the fact that the bill mixes adoption records and “prescribed information” with vital records is a clear sign that the provincial government fundamentally misunderstands the issue: adult adopted people are not seeking a right to “prescribed information” doled out selectively by government bureaucrats. We seek equality in our lives, as humans—we seek and demand the right to obtain our own birth records, just like anyone else. And what we wish to do with that record is up to us, as it is also for everyone else.

This bill should be rejected and the provincial government should start over with a focus on vital records and adoptee equality. Here are a few steps you can take to help get this bill kicked out.

1. Email the Prince Edward Island assembly members (emails below) and request a NO vote on Bill 29.
2. Follow Canada Open Records on Facebook. They are positioned to oppose this bill but will need additional advocates and allies who are available to help.
3. Educate yourself on the bill and its background. The bill is here. The provincial government’s August 2018 report about this issue is here.
4. Be ready to act as an ally to our Canadian friends who may need help as this develops. This means listening to what is needed and acting when specific action is requested.

Emails of Prince Edward Island Assembly Members
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]