June 25, 2007

Ontario Group Fights Adoption Information Disclosure Act

A decades-long battle to unseal Ontario adoption records will face yet another hurdle Monday when a small group of adoptees and birth parents mounts a constitutional challenge to the legislation. A minority of critics argues the Adoption Information Disclosure Act — which allows birth parents and adoptees to access information about one another — presents a serious breach of privacy under the Constitution. "We're saying that you can't retroactively undo the privacy that was promised to Canadians who gave children up for adoption or who adopted children," said Clayton Ruby, a Toronto-based civil liberties lawyer representing three adoptees and one birth parent who want their identities kept private.

Ontario group fights law allowing release of adoption records, Canadian Press, June 25, 2007.