Open adoption records across Canada

I fully sympathize with Laila Mjeldheim in her search for her biological mother as she prepares for her marriage (“In Quebec, adoptees struggle for answers,” Gazette, Jan. 1).

I am proud to have adopted an Inuit daughter when she was 6 months old. I made it clear to the adoption agency and the Inuit people that her Inuit identity would be respected. We vowed to respect her biological parents’ privacy but to do all we could to find them if our daughter asked.

She was working in the federal government’s Department of Aboriginal Affairs when she asked for help to find her birth parents. We approached the national association for the Inuit, which helped us track down her mother and arranged for her to travel all the way from Inuvik, near Alaska’s border.

There was no trouble in accessing information and paving the way for a reunion for my daughter with her mother and biological sisters. It made a great difference in her life regarding her identity and strengthened the bonds of our family.

I owe so much to the Inuit for being so open from my daughter’s birth until now. I pray that the Quebec government is more open to such requests as those of Mjeldheim, to allow her the chance to experience what my daughter did.

There should be equal opportunity across the provinces for the adopted to trace their birth roots. Roman Mukerjee

Ottawa