ONTARIO MINISTER PONDERS BAILING OUT RIPPED OFF PARENTS
Deb Matthews, the minister responsible for adoptions in Ontario has agreed to meet with the 400 and some odd parents who paid cash to adopt(buy) a baby from Ethiopia to discuss their concerns after those parents were left in the lurch by the agency after it filed for bankruptcy protection last week.
Frankly, screw that.
I through my taxes should not be held responsible for some failed adoption agency. The minister should send these people home packing. There are thousands of impoverished children on waiting lists waiting for adoption in Canada and it irks me to see some people who wanted to circumvent the adoption process through a private organization begging at my doorstep asking for a bailout.
If they truly wanted to help some kids, they should be helping some Canadian kids first, and when we solve that Canadian issue we should move onto the issue of saving the planets' children.
Damn right! The idea that the taxpayers should somehow be held financially responsible for this is ridiculous. These people have a beef with the owners of the agency not the government.
ReplyDeleteThe MP from Cambridge, Goodyear and his wife, were in on this adoption agency,..... something do do with it.
ReplyDeleteIsn't he the science and technology chiropractor that doesn't believe in evolution?
ReplyDeleteYes he is..one and the same
ReplyDelete"Isn't he the science and technology chiropractor that doesn't believe in evolution?"
ReplyDeleteYeah, and he's not the weirdest of the bunch. The inmates are running the asylum.
Wow, did you just think of thsat post off the top of your head? Actually, I know you did because there is so little truth in what you wrote and no understanding of why people choose to adopt internationally.
ReplyDeleteFor starters, there are not ".. thousands of impoverished children on waiting lists...". What there are are thousands of children in foster care, most not available for adoption and the ones that are are generally disabled and often part of family groups, unavailable to white couples, or have so many strings attached as to make it almost impossible. Go read the BC waiting children's list if you don't believe me.
www.mcf.gov.bc.ca/adoption/bulletinexternal/index.htm
Now, I'm sure you dream of raising a child that will never be independent but most adoptive parents just want a normal every day family and not a lifelong commiitment to a disabled child. Selfish, I'm sure, but I bet you're not wishing for a disabled child, either.
Second,no one in Canada "buys" a child. In order to adopt internationally a Canadian has to get government permission, and the adoption must follow the international treaty called the Hague convention which specifically bans the purchase of a child. That costs thousands. You start with homestudies, medical tests, references, criminal and ministry checks, mandatory training on adoption and inter-racial child raising. Then you pay to translate all that into the language of the country you are applying to, & pay for the courier fees and legal costs. Then you pay a fee to the orphanage, which you could call "buying", but it is usually just about recovering the costs the orphanage incurred in raising that child and is closely scrutinized by the government for just that reason. Add in travel and immigration and you're talking $20-30,000 of which very little is for the orphanage.
Finally, it's none of your god damned business how anyone else chooses to make a family, whether it's a straight couple and natural conception, or a gay couple using in-vitro, or any other combination as long as it is legal. Maybe the government shouldn't get involved in a bail-out, but the rest of your screed is pure ignorance.
Since when did BC's file cover all of Canada?
ReplyDeleteAs well, what does a disabled child have to do with anything? I have a son with autism and am glad to care for him.
You're right...it isn't my business how anyone makes a family, and frankly, I never said I gave shit about how it was done. What I give a shit about is whether or not the govenrment plays patsy to a bunch of pissed of people that lost their investmemt.
jim bender
http://www.canadaswaitingkids.ca/about.html
ReplyDeleteAnd you say there are no waiting Canadian kids?Hogwash.
There are thousands of kids waiting for homes.
and as well....
ReplyDeleteADOPTION MYTHS
One of the biggest myths about adoption in Canada is that there are no Canadian children available for adoption. There are more than 76,000 children in the care of child welfare organizations across Canada. More than 22,000 of these children have parents whose parental rights have been terminated by the courts. What this usually means is that these children have no permanent family and will live in foster care or small institutional placements until they are legally of age.
Most children referred to this program are 3 years and up (to the age of majority), but children as young as newborns have been referred to the program. The children referred to the program tend to be more challenging than most of the Canadian children in need of permanent families. This is because children are only referred to us when no other resources can be found in their home region.
I'm happy you have decided to raise an autistic child. Did you chose that or did it just happen? Tell me, when you were planning for a child did you say "Hey, let's have an autistic child, that would be neat!" or did you wish, like everyone else, for a healthy happy child? If you answered honestly, then no, you didn't wish for autism to be part of your family, yet you and so many other judgmental jerks demand adoptive parents take that on.
ReplyDeleteOh, and Jim, honesty would have suggested you copy the second paragraph too:
Most children referred to this program are 3 years and up (to the age of majority), but children as young as newborns have been referred to the program. The children referred to the program tend to be more challenging than most of the Canadian children in need of permanent families. This is because children are only referred to us when no other resources can be found in their home region.
Do you know what "more challenging means? Things like FAS, mnetal retardation, severe disabilities and behavioural issues.
Just because parental rights are terminated that does not mean they are available for adoption. If they are available for adoption, aside from severe special needs, many if not most are aboriginal or African and cannot be adopted inter-racially. Or if they can be adopted the ministry demand "open adoption" where the abusive or neglectful family is still involved in their lives. The adopting parents get to pay for everything but...
So Jim, let's talk about Canadian adoption - I've been there and I adopted a child outside Canada at a cost of over $30,000 when I could have adopted from the ministry for free. Hmm, 30 grand or free, I wonder why soooo many parents chose to pay? Maybe you could look into that.
Speaking from our experience, we are an older couple (early 40's) with a young child. We looked into domestic adoption but decided that because of the timeline (7-8 years, if it ever did happen) we needed a quicker route. Other considerations were the effect it would have on our child. We want a sibling for our child but for his sake we didn't want to risk the heartbreak of having a child adopted and then reclaimed, nor did we feel it was fair to adopt a child that had a high chance of serious psychological and emotional difficulties. Our best option was adoption from Ethiopia which has very low risk of FAS. The adoption is final before the child is brought into your home and it is relatively quick. We were considering the child we already had when we made this decision and considered this the best option for our family. Our government has the power to end our ability to adopt from Ethiopia...THAT is why we're asking for their help. They control the licences permitting adoption agencies to operate. We need their cooperation. We are not asking for a "HANDOUT" but PERMISSION and a means of maintaining the licence.
ReplyDeleteThe Rat has opened up a whole new angle on this issue. Is domestic adoption as frought with pitfalls and bureaucratic red tape as he says? Does our system actually discourage domestic adoption and force prospective adoptive parents to look overseas?
ReplyDeleteFor sure...the Rat opened a new angle up...does the government force people to take alternative actions? Perhaps yes. But also, does it make sense for our bankrupt province to cover the balance of the adoption when they have no cash to do so?
ReplyDeleteand on the other issue.
I guess you could say I chose my son.
Perhaps if you care to read, there is a story somewhere on this blog relating an incident with someone from the CAs who stated they'd be glad to take him off my hands.
In that regard, you can say I chose him over my personal freedom. My committment is lifetime, and I can easily say I chose that path. There have been many options presented to me over the years...adoption, fostering, group homes part time,but in the end the decision to keep him in the home was ours, no matter what the cost of that is. I can easily say we made a choice Mr Rat.
We have adjusted our lives in total for him.
It wouldn't make sense for the government to bail these people out even if the government was up to its neck in cash. The government, and by extension the taxpayers, are in no way responsible for the mess these people find themselves in. I'm not prepared to pay these people out of my own pocket because they made a bad decision by investing their money with crooks.
ReplyDeleteI've lost money due to the market melt down. None of these people knocked on my door and offered to give me money to shore up my retirement account. What makes them so special that I should be expected to pay them simply because they have suffered a financial setback.
It's all bullshit.
Don't want to bail out the adoption agency? As I said, fine with me. But don't anyone here dare tell me I have to adopt a disabled child because YOU feel that's the best thing to do.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, Jim, it takes a very big man to accept the crap that life throws at you and make the absolute best of it. Adoption is no different in that the child you adopt can develop untold problems, the risk is even higher among adopted children just because of the backgrounds they come from. We will accept what comes but we don't have to chose it up front and it is just plain wrong to force adoptive parents to take disabled children instead of adopting a (hopefully) healthy child abroad.
To all those who think it is best to restrict adoption to Canada only, to make us adoptive parents take severely disabled children if we want a family, I have just one thing to say:
YOU FIRST
If you feel so strongly that these children deserve a home then you do it first, show me just how much you think they deserve a loving home by providing it yourself.
Well spoken Rat.
ReplyDeleteSurely these people "should be sent home packing" is a "derogatory personal attack like statement." (And clearly Jim Bender is a bigoted jerk.) The Woodstock Independent News is completely irresponsible in publishing these kinds of comments, especially given how agonizing this time period is for families affected by the Imagine bankruptcy.
ReplyDeleteBuy Canadian kids.
ReplyDelete"Surely these people "should be sent home packing" is ................"
ReplyDeleteBender, you insensitive bastard. You've gone and offended someone's feelings again. :)