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January 30, 2012. A cabinet shuffle has resulted in a new Minister in charge of The Adoption Act. The new minister is the Honourable Jennifer Howard, Minister of Family Services and Labour. Hopefully she will continue the process of opening past adoption records that we have been assured is happening. To contact the Minister or your M.L.A. go here

December 19, 2011. I have been getting some good feelings that come Spring 2012 we may be seeing changes made that will open up the past adoption records. If this is true it will be none to soon to help thousands of Manitobans. The records that have to be opened go back to the 1920's and every year there are hundreds passing on without ever having found their birthfamily or their child. The wrong that was done to the adoption community in 1999 when the previous government refused to open past records has to be corrected soon.

June 15, 2009 - Manitoba announces legislative review of the Adoption Act to open records back to 1925. To see the Canadian Press announcement go here

A legislative review was done in 1997 and is contained in the Report of the Child and Family Services Act Review Committee on the Community Consultation Process compiled by Helen Zuefle. Quote: With respect to the issue of opening of past adoption records, the two views of the Committee members are: a) After a suitable notification process to allow for the filing of a veto all past adoption records should be opened. or b) The confidentiality of existing adoption records should be maintained at the time of announcing the new adoption legislation, there should be public notification that existing records remain intact. Unquote

The goverment at that time decided to go with b) and continue their discriminatory policy of sealed records.

Why is it necessary to do another review? The results are in the Zuefle report.

• An Adoptee's perspective: an adoptee has never touched the hand of kin or seen a face that looked like their own.

• A Birth Parent's perspective: a birth mother or father has never stopped grieving for that part of themselves they relinquished years ago.

• An Adoptive Parent's perspective: an adoptive parent has never stopped fearing that one day their adopted child, for whatever reasons, will seek their roots and true identity and leave them for another.

ATTN: All Birthmothers and Birthfathers.

The American Adoption Congress has asked for the support of all birthparents in both Canada and the United States to pressure the provincial and state governments to open adoption records for adult adoptees to obtain their original birth certificates. Please go to the following site for more information and to register click here

Check out our message board below, we may be looking for you

Post Adoption Registry

The Adoption Act of Manitoba

contact your MLA's	Canadian provincial registries & genealogy	complete our questionnaire	non-identifying information
issues	more adoption registries, genealogy, cemeteries, obituaries, DNA testing	Do's and Don'ts	Why open records?
books and articles	comparison of Canadian adoption laws	Libraries and Organizations	Canadian Support Groups & paid searchers

First Nations children, birthparents and siblings of those adopted out of Manitoba and Canada, should also register with the following: click here



OPEN RECORDS

Provinces and Territories who have passed legislation to open past and future adoption records are British Columbia, Alberta, Newfoundland/Labrador, Ontario, and Yukon. Manitoba would not make the Adoption Act of 1999 retroactive so the thousands of birthparents and the adoptees who were adopted from the beginning of record keeping until 1999 are being denied their records.

To see a summary of the adoption laws in Canada click here

Open adoption records have always been available in Norway, Israel, Finland, Mexico, France, and Saudi Arabia. Since 1930 the following countries opened their birth certificate records retroactively to adoptees and birthparents: Scotland, Russia, England, Sweden, Argentina, Germany, Taiwan, Poland, Argentina, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, South Korea, Brazil, The Netherlands, New Zealand (1985), and Australia (1994). Open adoption records, available retroactively, for adoptees only are available in the U.S. in the states of (never were sealed) Alaska and Kansas, (after 1998) Alabama, Colorado, Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Tennessee..

To view an update (June 2011) on the status of any changes to The Adoption Act of Manitoba visit my blog at

WINNIPEG: for assistance call: Roy at 204-257-4742 or

BRANDON: for assistance call Vivian at 204-727-1022 or 204-727-3903 or



Members of the triad who are registering for a search are still being told that they must write a non-identifying letter to the other party. It will be censured to ensure that it does not contain any identifying information, or what the worker considers identifying, and it will be copied and placed on your file in the office. This procedure does not have to be followed and you should be told there is an option. For more information about this violation of privacy go to our page called Do's and Don'ts



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site updated February 9, 2012