With Bill 113 having gone into effect Saturday, 300,000 orphans and adopted children, born in Quebec between 1920 and 1970, will be able to learn who their biological parents were.
Thousands of single pregnant women and abandoned children were welcomed at the Miséricorde Hospital in Montreal. Founded in 1848, the hospital closed in 2012. Photo Philippe Du Berger. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
The province’s adoption records will be released in two stages. The archives will first be opened to orphans and adopted children whose parents have been dead for more than a year, which is the case for the majority of the records.
Then, for people whose parents are still alive, the government has imposed a one-year waiting period. These orphans and adopted children will have to wait until June 16, 2019 before asking for the identity of their parents.
During this time, the parents will be able to register a refusal of disclosure in order to prevent the child from knowing their identity. This refusal will be temporary. After the parent has died, their identity will be revealed.
Caroline Fortin, the president of Mouvement Retrouvailles, a non-profit organization that lobbied elected officials to open adoption records, told Radio-Canada she does not expect many parents to oppose their identity being revealed. In the other provinces, she says only between four and five percent of parents registered a refusal to disclose.
Toll-free number
To prepare for a large number of requests, the provincial Minister of Health and Social Services has assembled a team of eight case workers who will be available, starting June 18, through a toll-free number 1-888-441-7889.
La Presse reported the Ministry would not say how long it will take to respond to the requests for access to the adoption files.
Relatives of deceased orphans and adopted people will not be allowed access to the records.
Looking for my biological mother and father. I was born at – Queen Elizabeth Hospital on May 21, 1964. I believe her name to be Liane Kaub.
I hope you have called the number in the blog post and applied for information about your biological parents. If not, you should do it soon because there is quite a backlog of requests.