HUMA Committee Report

Dissenting Opinion, Liberal Party of Canada

We would like to thank all of the witnesses that appeared before the HUMA committee during the course of the Federal Support Measures to Adoptive Parents study. The Liberal Party supports the intent of the study and many of its recommendations; however, it feels that the final report did not address a key concern that adoptive parents and stakeholder groups called for. Witnesses appearing before the committee, which included adoptive stakeholder groups and parents of adopted children, made it clear to committee members that the current parental leave benefit did not fit the needs of many adoptive parents. They recommended the establishment of a new employment insurance benefit, Adoption Leave, that would provide adoptive parents more time to adjust, recover and bond with their adopted child.

The Liberal Party of Canada understands that adoptive families face many unique challenges in meeting the medical, emotional, and psychological needs of children who may come to them having severely damaged experiences. The Adoptive Council of Ontario gave very clear examples how the bonding and transition process is unique to adoptive families. They included,

§  A child placed with a family through an International Adoption travels to a strange country with parents who do not speak his language. All aspects of the child’s life are suddenly very different. Parents are advised to cocoon into their home and restrict all access to the outside world for several months. Parents limit contact with family and friends devoting all their time and energy on the bonding process and supporting their child through the trauma of massive change. The child is often learning a new language and, over and above transitioning from all things unfamiliar, is navigating new things that we take for granted like four seasons, new landscapes, opportunities, foods and transportation not to mention new primary caregivers and new relationships and routines called “family.” Many times, the whole  concept of “mother,” of  “father” or ”sister” or “brother” is  completely new, uncertain, and  even scary  to them.

§  A child is placed with a family through a voluntary placement in a private adoption. The placement may happen within hours after the birth. Little or no planning for the child’s arrival can be done by the parents until the birth parents make a post birth decision to place the child. Often a parent is not even able to inform their employer of plans for a leave until the child is born and placed.

§  A child placed through the child welfare system is often older, may include a sibling group or may have special needs for are and has often experienced trauma of loss, neglect and/or abuse. More than likely they have been in several foster homes where even the idea of permanency — of coming home, to “their home” is difficult to imagine. They need maximum time, child‐focused and child-centered time to transition and bond.

We believe the final report should have included a recommendation on the creation of Adoptive Leave benefits to better serve adoptive parents’ distinctive needs. Instead the final report hides behind a red-hearing Federal Court of Appeal case (Tomasson v. Canada) that in no way restricts the Government of Canada from creating a new Adoptive Leave benefit program for adoptive parents. The Liberal Party recognizes and believes that the needs of adoptive parents are as legitimate, and as substantial as those of biological parents. The creation of a new Adoptive Leave benefit would insure equality between adoptive and biological parenting.