By: Kathryn Blaze Carlson Amid growing evidence of coercive adoption practices targeting unmarried mothers between the 1940s and 1980s, politicians across the country are calling for investigations into what many mothers allege was a systemic bid to secure their babies for adoption. Since the National Post’s March 10 report detailing the accounts of seven women, […]
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NDP MPP Monique Taylor ‘shocked’ at lack of response to push for coerced adoption probe
By: Kathryn Blaze Carlson The Ontario NDP on Monday urged the Liberal government during Question Period to order an investigation into the province’s past adoption practices, citing recent accusations from women who say they were coerced by social agencies, medical workers and churches into giving up their children because they were not married. “Unmarried mothers […]
B.C. government hit with class-action lawsuit over coerced adoption claims
By: Kathryn Blaze Carlson The British Columbia government was on Friday hit with a class-action lawsuit accusing the province of abduction, fraud, and coercion in connection with adoptions among unmarried women from the 1940s until the early 1990s. The lead plaintiff is today a fourth-year psychology student named Cassandra Armishaw, who became pregnant at age […]
The Australian precedent: Women fighting for an adoption inquiry look across the ocean
By: Kathryn Blaze Carlson For the first time in 50 years, Barbara Maison does not feel “so completely alone” in her grief over being coerced to surrender her son for adoption, and after four decades of shame, Robin Turner only now feels validated and worthy of respect. Both women recently testified before an Australian Senate […]
‘You suffered just as much’: Adoptees gain new insight into parents’ choices as coerced adoption stories come to light
By: Kathryn Blaze Carlson On this day, 48 years ago, Betty Meredith says she was tied down to a birthing table, covered with a sheet so she could not see her daughter being born and then unknowingly given drugs to dry up her breast milk. Teenaged and unmarried at the time, she ultimately surrendered her […]
Coerced adoption: Salvation Army launches review of maternity homes that housed unwed mothers
By: Kathryn Blaze Carlson The Salvation Army says it is conducting an internal review into its historic maternity homes, just as a retired Calgary judge — who was once a high-ranking child welfare worker in the city — has come forward and corroborated some of the claims mothers have recently made about coercive adoption practices […]
‘The fathers had no say’: Men tell another side of coerced adoption story
By: Kathryn Blaze Carlson As more mothers come forward to push for an inquiry into Canada’s historic adoption practices targeting unmarried women, fathers have emerged to say they, too, were coerced into surrendering their children. In Sutton, Ont., Raymond Cave said he was never asked to sign a surrender document in 1967, even though the […]
Taken without mother’s consent: Woman calls for inquiry into P.E.I.’s ‘systematic removal’ of children
By: Kathryn Blaze Carlson A woman is urging the Premier of Prince Edward Island to launch a public inquiry into that province’s historic adoption practices, which she said resulted in the “coercive and systematic removal” of children from their unmarried mothers from the 1950s to the 1970s. The call comes ahead of an expected series […]
Curtain lifts on decades of forced adoptions for unwed mothers in Canada
By: Kathryn Blaze Carlson Karen Lynn was 19 when her mother sent her to a home for unmarried pregnant women in Clarkson, Ont., in 1963. There, she was known as Karen No. 1 to protect her family’s reputation, and said it was clear she would not have been allowed to stay there if she did […]
Action on past forced adoption policies
The National Apology for past forced adoption practices is taking place in Canberra today. This will be a very important day for mothers, fathers, adoptees, grandparents and families. These practices have clearly had a devastating impact on hundreds of thousands of lives. An apology was one of the key recommendations made by the Senate Community […]