Submitted by crinadmin on
Summary: Ontario passed their adoption legislation reform, Bill 183, to open adoption records in that province, on 1 November 2005. The Bill has now had Royal Assent and goes to committee to work out exactly how it will be implemented.
Ontario passed their adoption legislation reform, Bill 183, to open adoption records in that province, on 1 November 2005. The Bill has now had Royal Assent and goes to committee to work out exactly how it will be implemented. There is a period of 18 months during which a publicity campaign will notify people in Canada and the United States of the change and allow anyone who wished to place a contact veto to do so. The Bill is retroactive to 1927, the year adoption records were sealed in Ontario at the request of adopting parents. There is also no right to veto release of information. These two sections of the Bill make Ontario's adoption reform the most progressive in Canada. An article by Sandra Pupatello, the Minister who brought the Bill forward, was recently published in the Canadian newspaper The Star: read "Why Ontario's adoption law had to be changed".