What
is "non-identifying" information? Non-identifying information
is a background and history of one’s natural mother and
family at the time of the adoption surrender that has been
interpreted from the files of the Children's Aid Society
(CAS), sometimes as much as 5 times before the individual
receives it.
Social
workers during the time of the adoption surrender had a
mission under the "guise" of an interview to convince, coerce
and encourage mothers to surrender their babies. Often portraying
a life-time of poverty, neglect and misery and inducing
fear, shame and humiliation on the vulnerable mother to
which they were assigned these files are questionable at
best. Several mothers have reported to me that these interviews
were more emotional sentencing sessions in which privileged
paid government henchmen were "professionals" in convincing
women that they were unfit, unworthy and incapable of raising
their own flesh and blood.
In addition,
workers heavily skirted laws, and omitted any information
that would enable anyone to raise their own child. Under
the guise of "help," social workers undertook the conquest
of family separations, recording what they wanted with little
regard for accuracy, honesty or truth. Now the same agencies
are under law supposed to release what we call "non-identifying
information" based on the files of these interviews with
mothers, fathers and others. Records were a loosely based
written recording of a social workers views of one’s mother
with most not knowing the mother except for a few hours
of conversation yet the "non-id" continues to be written
as if the CAS is an expert into the psyche and feelings
of mothers and others involved.
Governments
refused information well into the 1980’s. What we have now
is supposed to satisfy what ignorant, power hungry workers
merely call "curiosity" as if they know what it means to
be amputated from your own family? The nature of non-identifying
information is tossed around like a weapon of fear to keep
those effected under the thumb of secrecy and lies. To justify
this haphazard mockery of justice these so called professionals
skirt authenticity and truth under the argument of something
that they call "confidentiality". In truth no mother in
North America ever signed such an agreement nor were they
promised confidentiality yet that is continually and recklessly
preached by these agencies. Confidentiality was in as much
as the neighbors not being able to see records much like
a doctor’s confidentiality. Women did not ask for this,
nor did they or are they responsible for closed records
today yet CAS agencies distort this fact blaming mothers
for closed records which is grossly unfair. The government
created the archaic failed adoption experiment before 1927
and they are clearly responsible for the human right's abuse
of closed records.
Sealed
records were implemented at the behest of the Children’s
Aid Society who I personally view more as the Child Abduction
Society based on 14 years of experience.Today the "confidentiality"
argument is just another weapon to shame, blame and silence
mothers while dividing them from their own children conveniently
side-stepping the role of the agencies involved.
Today,
so-called professionals are in charge of reviewing ancient
files devised by narrow-minded judgmental strangers who
sat with our mothers at best for a few hours - yet who in
their alleged wisdom purport to know who they are? Most
agencies throw at best small morsels of information, all
carefully screened for one thing: to not ever in this lifetime
expose the truth of what the CAS did to mothers or any of
us, and to ensure that it is written in a way to make the
mother guilty-as-charged and to be seen as having a choice
in the matter. Of note is that of every mother that I
have found in 14 years, no one had a choice and I believe
them hands-down over a bureaucratic agency. The depiction
of mothers and fathers in the non-id is often demeaning,
negative and highly insulting portraying them in any number
of ways from unfit, to incapable, to many other scenarios.
The adopters of course in the non-id are reported as life-rescuing
saints in a reckless pitting of the natural family oppressed
under the adopters.
The
non-id is supposed to include a myriad of information such
as occupations, religion, ethic background etc. This information
varies depending on how closed-minded and archaic the agency
is. From sketchy ridiculously vague accounts of a family
history to pages of interpretive writings the non-id varies
from place to place and in many cases is not accurate. The
agencies continue to blame the mother seeing them as having
lied or having not provided the information at the time
of the surrender.
Let
us ask ourselves why thousands of women would lie at a time
when they were being coerced, manipulated and shamed into
the surrender of their own baby. What motive would one have
in lying about how many siblings they might have, or what
their parents did for a living? Yet when the non-id is fabricated
and false and people question those agencies the blame is
on the mother for such things as the distortion of the most
basic of facts.
It became
clear to me after years of helping others search that it
seemed only mothers in certain areas of Ontario and Canada
had lied for decades. All the mothers must have lied to
the workers in particular areas for instance as certain
agencies seem to have continual problems with authenticity.
Did
mothers in certain regions have a secret lying serum in
the water as to conjure up information so untrue it reads
as a fiction short story?
Are
we to believe that these women in certain areas hated their
own children so much that they orchestrated stories to never
be found again often times dreading the return of their
own flesh and blood?
Are
we to believe that they are to this day hiding like fugitives
under the Big Brother bosom of cold, government agencies
in a plot to never be found again?
NO -
or was it that other mothers did not seem to be lying in
certain geographic areas with no explanation as to this
bizarre phenomena.
I have
investigated and discovered that what is written, be it
truthful or lies, solely depends on how closed or open the
worker is in providing human rights and our right to information.
I have
learned that depending on what CAS agency you are dealing
with depends on the information you get. If you have the
misfortune of dealing with a dinosaur worker who was ‘there"
when your mother allegedly chose adoption - the stakes rise
as to the degree of inaccuracies contained in the non-id.
From
a few written lines to pages of illusions, this information
in its entirely must never be seen as being true, unless
you have proof from the person in which it is written about
that it is either true of false.
I personally
find it utterly ridiculous to see motive on the part of
the mother to fabricate the many lies that I have seen in
the non-id and after interviewing and meeting with hundreds
of mothers without question I do not believe they provided
false information in the first place.
For
anyone who has obtained the non-id I would encourage you
to ask others who have received the non-id from the same
agency if they found out if it was true. In reunion, if
you discover the information is inaccurate I would not assume
it was your mother that lied.
I would
also suggest writing a formal complaint to the CAS about
the false information. It is not only morally irreproachable
that non-id is fabricated it should be illegal. It is time
for the system to answer to those in which it serves and
such complaints may save another person from searching for
in some cases 20+ years or more due to deliberate false
information written by the CAS. So inaccurate is the non-id
in some areas it is like trusting a high altitude jump using
an umbrella as a parachute. Use common sense and give your
mother the benefit of the doubt when in search.
Finally,
those warm and fuzzy statements saying that your mother
"chose" adoption is just another lie to add to the mountain
of illusions - No, I do not believe for a second that suddenly
thousands of people made the "loving choice" to surrender
their babies to cold, ruthless agencies, and I further believe
that the CAS has no right in commenting as to what your
mother thought at the time, or as to her choice. When in
search take the information with a grain of salt, be creative,
trust your instinct and carefully consider the source.
I am
on the side of the mothers, not the workers who robbed them
of their children in the first place! Make sure there is
nothing in the water in your area as if there was let us
all speak out against it!
By
Anne Patterson
Open Records Activist
Adoption-Should-End Activist
Early Childhood Educator
Licensed Searcher
Reunited Adoptee
"...Later,
as states began to close records to the parties themselves,
they did so not to provide lifelong anonymity for [exiled]
mothers, but the other way around -- to protect adoptive
families from possible interference or harassment by [exiled]
parents." - How
Adoption in America Grew Secret - Birth Records Weren't
Closed for the Reasons You Might Think, by Professor
Elizabeth J. Samuels, Baltimore School of Law.
