Recommendations
RECOMMENDATION 1:
That the Government of Canada issue a formal apology on behalf of all Canadians to the mothers and their children who were subjected to forced adoption practices in the years following World War II. The apology must:
- be informed by the work of an advisory group established to provide direction on the content of the apology;
- fulfill five criteria: acknowledge the wrongdoing, accept responsibility, express regret, provide assurance that this practice will not occur again and provide reparation through action; and,
- be delivered in Parliament within one year of the tabling of this report.
RECOMMENDATION 2:
That membership of the advisory group established under recommendation 1 includes, but not be limited to, mothers, adoptees and members of reunification organizations.
RECOMMENDATION 3:
That the reparations described in the national apology called for in recommendation 1 include, but not be limited to:
- collaboration between the Government of Canada and its provincial and territorial counterparts to create a fund to support training programs for professional counsellors that is appropriate to the needs of individuals affected by past adoption practices and the provision of counselling services by those professionals to mothers and adoptees affected by forced adoption practices at no cost to them;
- a public awareness campaign that acknowledges and describes the forced adoption practices that were imposed on unmarried mothers in the decades following World War II;
- an online platform for mothers and adoptees to share their personal stories; and,
- a commitment to highlight the issue of access to adoption files by parents and adoptees with provincial and territorial governments.
RECOMMENDATION 4:
That the Government of Canada, in collaboration with its provincial and territorial counterparts:
- initiate a discussion on the status of provincial legislation governing adoption files, in particular whether parents and adoptees have the right to access those files;
- develop a consensus position on a uniform policy in regard to accessibility of adoption files across Canada that acknowledges a person’s right to know their identity;
- develop and issue a joint statement calling on the religious organizations that ran the maternity homes for unmarried mothers to examine their roles during the post-war years, acknowledge the harm that resulted from their actions and accept responsibility; and,
- work with child welfare organizations in all jurisdictions to examine their roles in the forced adoption practices with a view to issuing apologies at the provincial and territorial level comprised of the five criteria recommended for the national apology.
Ottawa – It is time to begin the healing process for unwed mothers and the children they were pressured into giving up in the decades after the Second World War, the Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology said in a report on Canada’s forced adoption practices released Thursday.
Post-war Canada remained harshly judgemental of unmarried mothers, who faced enormous social and institutional pressure to give up their babies to “traditional” couples looking to establish their own nuclear families between the end of the war and the early 1970s.
Unmarried women who had become pregnant were sometimes forced to go to maternity homes — supported by federal funds — to deliver their babies in relative secrecy. Many women had difficult experiences in these homes even before their newborns were taken from them.
It is difficult to know exactly how many people were affected by these forced adoption practices, but nearly 600,000 so-called “illegitimate births” were recorded between 1945 and 1971.
The committee’s report makes four recommendations, including that the federal government deliver a formal apology in Parliament within a year, and that it make reparations that would include professional counselling for survivors of Canada’s forced adoption practices.
Quick Facts
- Committee members heard oral testimony and received written briefs from many people affected by Canada’s forced adoption practices.
- One mother described her life as a “silent hell” since her baby was taken; a now-grown man taken from his mother asked senators to imagine giving up “everything you had, your past life … your entire life, throw it away.”
- Australia had similar post-war adoption practices — but after an Australian Senate committee inquiry, the government issued a formal apology in Parliament House in Canberra on March 21, 2013. It also offered counselling and support services.
Quotes
“This unfortunate part of Canada’s history needs to be addressed. We cannot reverse the harms that have taken place, but we can provide support for those who were wronged.”
- Senator Art Eggleton, P.C., Chair of the committee
“The testimony we heard was difficult to hear — anyone listening to the survivors of these practices will agree that an apology and reparations are warranted.”
- Senator Chantal Petitclerc, Deputy Chair of the committee
“Formal acknowledgment of the pain and suffering experienced by survivors of Canada’s forced adoption practices is the first step in the process of healing.”
- Senator Judith Seidman, Deputy Chair of the committee
Associated Links
- Read the report, The Shame is Ours: Study of the Forced Adoption of the Babies of Unwed Mothers in Post-war Canada.
- Read stories from survivors of the post-war forced adoption mandate.
- Follow the committee on social media using the hashtag #SOCI.
- Sign up for the Senate’s eNewsletter.
For more information or interview requests, please contact:
Sonia Noreau
Public Relations Officer
Senate of Canada
613-614-1180 | sonia.noreau@sen.parl.gc.ca
Multimedia
Senators Art Eggleton, P.C. (committee chair), Chantal Petitclerc (committee deputy chair), and mothers and adoptees impacted by Canada's forced adoption era discuss the findings from the Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology’s report at a press conference in Ottawa on Thursday, July 19, 2018.
Senators who participated in this study
Art Eggleton, P.C.
Lib. - Ontario (Toronto)
Chantal Petitclerc
ISG - Quebec (Grandville)
Judith G. Seidman
C - Quebec (De la Durantaye)
Wanda Thomas Bernard
PSG - Nova Scotia (East Preston)
Tony Dean
ISG - Ontario
Fabian Manning
C - Newfoundland and Labrador
Marie-Françoise Mégie
ISG - Quebec (Rougemont)
Jim Munson
PSG - Ontario (Ottawa / Rideau Canal)
Ratna Omidvar
ISG - Ontario
Rose-May Poirier
C - New Brunswick (Saint-Louis-de-Kent)
Ex officio members: The Honourable Senators: Peter Harder, P.C. (or Diane Bellemare, or Grant Mitchell), Yuen Pau Woo (or Raymonde Saint-Germain), Larry Smith (or Yonah Martin), Joseph Day (or Terry Mercer)
Other Senators who have participated from time to time in the study: The Honourable Senators Marty Deacon (Ontario), Mike Duffy, Nancy Greene Raine (now retired)