About
Looking in Ontario advocates for the right for all people to be able to correct their own personal records, especially adoptees who are often denied this right just because of their birth status. Although our focus is on the province of Ontario in Canada, we support these rights right across Canada and the world. We believe that personal records should be accurate and complete as possible, regardless of birth status.
History
Looking in Ontario was originally founded in 2000. One of its primary aims was to advocate for open adoption records across Canada. Adoption records have now opened right across Canada, with the last province, Nova Scotia, opening theirs in 2022. However, the records have omissions – the most serious one being the name of the father being wiped off the original birth registration of the adoptee. We are now turning our attention to having those mistakes and omissions corrected on the original birth registrations of adoptees. In 2005, the province of Ontario made it illegal for any adoptee to have their original birth registration corrected, even if the information was incorrect or missing.
It has also been brought to our attention that false death records were issued for adoptees who were alive at the time they were issued. Parents were told that their children had died and they were given death records. The child would then be adopted out afterwards. Dead children cannot be adopted!
Records have been deliberately destroyed. More and more evidence is emerging of records being destroyed by the government and its agencies.
These records need to be restored or replaced.
Indigenous people have been profoundly affected. In Canada, status rights can be denied if information is missing. Indigenous adoptees were misled about their ancestry, with many being told they were of Italian or Dutch descent. This makes it much harder for Indigenous adoptees to find their families.
Mission
Now our mission is to get the Ontario government (as well as other provinces in Canada) to repeal the law that was passed in 2005 that forbids the Registrar General of Ontario from being able to correct and update the original birth registrations of adoptees. We are advocating for the right of adoptees to be able to correct their original birth records in the same way that the non-adopted are able to right now.
We are asking the Ontario government to repeal Section 28 (6) of the Vital Statistics Act of Ontario which would then allow the Registrar General to correct the original birth registrations of adoptees.
In Canada, some adoptees were born in one province but adopted in another. Many adoptees are finding problems in obtaining access to those records. We are asking provincial governments to give access to all records that the adoptee and their family of origin would be able to have if both the adoption and the birth had occurred in the same province.
We are campaigning to get false death records deleted.
The Government and its agencies destroyed genuine records.
We ask that genuine records be restored or replaced. Dead children cannot be adopted!
Everyone deserves complete and accurate personal records.
To deny anybody that is to violate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 8.
Other countries such as Australia and Ireland correct original records of adoptees – so should Canada (check out our page on “Other Countries Laws on Adoptee Records” – it is constantly being updated).
Looking in Ontario also supports Bill 87 in Ontario to extend access to adoption information to next of kin of deceased adoptees/parents.
Links to our web site pages
LOOKING IN ONTARIO 