Disclosure tool now available
A new online tool is available to help Nova Scotians protect or control private adoption information.
"We want people who wish to protect their privacy to have a choice of how they use the privacy tools," Minister Karla MacFarlane said in a Community Services Department news release.
"Recognizing that this is a deeply personal and emotional matter, disclosure program staff are also available to discuss options with anyone impacted by the new legislation. I encourage Nova Scotians to reach out with questions or concerns or just to talk it through."
The legislation was introduced last March by the then-Liberal government in an effort to bring Nova Scotia up to speed with the rest of the country in opening adoption records.
The legislation that takes effect this spring will allow adopted children, once they turn 19, and birth parents to access adoption information if they want to.
“We are excited about the potential of the online adoption disclosure tool,” adoptee Scott Pyke, founder and administrator of the Nova Scotia Adoptee Advocacy Group, said in the release.
“This will give adoptees, birth parents and families impacted by adoption another avenue to access important information.
“We continue to be excited about the steps taken to modernize the disclosure system here in Nova Scotia and this will have a positive impact on many people."
Kelly Regan, the Liberal minister of community services who introduced the legislation last March, said adoption records in Nova Scotia were sealed in the mid-1940s, meaning no court or government shared adoption record information.
“This practice was thought to be in the best interests of the adopted person and was intended to protect the privacy of birth parents, the adopted person and the adopted parents,” Regan said after tabling the new legislation.
After extensive department consultation with Nova Scotians on the new bill, Regan said the government chose the route of reversing the onus for consent, just as it did with the organ donation act.
She said consent to expose identifiable information will be presumed, “but parties to an adoption can opt out.”
Pyke was on hand to see the legislation introduced.
“Seeing these changes take place, it’s life-changing for many people,” he said.
Pyke said at the time he had contact with his birth family and was starting on the journey of reconnection and rebuilding “but to have this bill passed and to understand that there are 30,000plus individuals who are impacted by adoption who are going to be able to take that same journey, is very humbling.”
“There is always a part of you that seems to be a little bit missing or foggy when you are adopted and having this open up in such an amazing way, it is really going to add that part back into everyone’s lives,” Pyke said.