GEOFFREY YORK JOHANNESBURG — The Globe and Mail Published Tuesday, May. 29 2012, 8:32 PM EDT A dramatic rise in foreign adoptions from Africa is ringing alarm bells among child advocates who worry that the soaring numbers are fuelled by financial incentives and a lack of basic safeguards. The number of African children adopted by […]
United Church archives ground zero in search for evidence of forced adoptions
By: Kathryn Blaze Carlson The 4,500-square-foot vault is a temperature-controlled former television studio, maintained at a precise 18 C with a relative humidity of 30%. The shelved boxes — all 23,000 of them — are made of acid-free cardboard and contain information that dates at least as early as 1792. These glassed-in premises on the […]
Presbyterians to probe maternity homes in wake of Post forced adoption revelations
By: Kathryn Blaze Carlson The Presbyterian Church in Canada has launched an internal review of its historic maternity home practices, becoming the third church to do so since the National Post last month began an investigation into coerced and forced adoptions targeting unmarried mothers between the 1940s and 1980s. Stephen Kendall, the clerk of the […]
‘These women didn’t know their options’: Ontario urged to consider inquiry into coerced adoptions
By: Kathryn Blaze Carlson Ontario’s NDP urged the Dalton McGuinty government Wednesday to look at launching an inquiry into the province’s historic adoption practices in the wake of accusations from women who say they were coerced by social agencies, medical workers and churches into giving up their children. “I would urge the Minister of Children […]
Spanish nun accused of stealing babies in another forced adoption scandal
By Cristina Fuentes-Cantillana MADRID — An elderly Spanish nun appeared in court on Thursday to face charges of stealing babies, after claims by hundreds of women that their infants were taken from them at birth and given away in illegal adoptions. Doctors, nurses and religious workers at several clinics and hospitals in Spain are alleged […]
What the #!%*? Is anybody investigating the allegations of forced adoptions across Canada?
By: Kathryn Blaze Carlson In this occasional feature, the National Post tells you everything you need to know about a complicated issue. Today, Kathryn Blaze Carlson looks at what’s next in the push for an investigation into forced adoptions targeting unmarried women between the 1940s and 1980s. Q: We’ve been hearing about this issue for […]
Your baby is dead: Mothers say their supposedly stillborn babies were stolen from them
By: Kathryn Blaze Carlson This is how the woman, then young, remembered the August day in 1963 on which she gave birth to her illegitimate daughter: She was in an Edmonton hospital; the doctor ordered she receive an injection. She blacked out, and when she started to come to, a male voice said: “knock her […]
Senator joins growing call for probe into forced adoptions
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, […]
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 […]