Form ‘had no other basis’ than to exclude children of colour, says Montreal lawyer
Quebec’s youth protection agency has revised its adoption registration form for parents and no longer allows them to explicitly state the preferred race for their child
The change came after a Montreal lawyer argued the practice was unconstitutional and essentially made it more difficult for Black, brown and Indigenous children to find homes
Dominique Lebrun said the form had no other basis
but to exclude children of colour from social services
I think it had no place in the process,
Lebrun said
Up until recently, that process included an application form that asked potential adoptive parents to describe what kind of child they wanted — including age range, sex, health status and race
For race, parents only needed to check a box among several options including white, Black, mixed race, Asian or Indigenous
In Quebec, there are two ways to adopt a child who is in youth protection
Regular adoption is when a child’s biological parents or legal guardians consent to the adoption process
Mixed bank adoption is when a child is considered at high risk of being abandoned by his parents and is put in foster care as a first step toward adoption
As far as Lebrun is concerned, asking parents which race they prefer is especially problematic for mixed bank adoptions since, until the adoption process is complete, those foster families are paid by the Quebec government
I just felt very troubled by the fact that people could literally exclude [children of colour] from their applications especially when they are acting on behalf of the state. They are paid to be foster families,
she said
The state was actually enabling the discrimination to happen through its formal process
MONTREAL LAWYER EXPLAINS WHY QUEBEC’S OLD ADOPTION REGISTRATION FORM WAS UNFAIR
:In the new, revised form, the check box is gone. Instead, parents are asked the following questions
?Would you accept a child from a different cultural or ethnic background than yours
?How would you prepare to meet the cultural needs of the child
The form also asks the parents to list the positives as well as different challenges they think they will encounter if they were entrusted with such a child
Historically, Black and Indigenous children have been overrepresented in the province’s youth protection system
Stephen Hennessy, an educator who works at Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital and specializes in child and family mental health, says lots of harm could be caused to children if they are placed in homes that are not equipped to deal with their cultural realities
Filtering parents, in that sense, can be a good thing, he says
I’d rather you be straight up and tell me ‘that’s not what I want’ than to take on a child and then further abuse or damage happens,
Hennessy said
Intent was never to discriminate, Health Ministry says
Last year, Lebrun presented her master’s thesis on the topic to the province’s youth protection agency, known in French as the Directeur de la protection de la jeunesse. It highlighted the discriminatory effects of this system, such as creating two distinct waiting lines
for children in need of foster homes, she said
In a statement to CBC News, the Health Ministry said the head of the youth protection agency was concerned about the conclusions of the thesis and put a team together to look into possible changes to the form
The work group concluded that the wording of certain questions in the registration form could indeed cause an ambiguity,
said Marie-Hélène Émond, a spokesperson for the ministry
The spokesperson also said that youth protection officials have the best interests of every child at heart — regardless of race or ethnicity — and there was a logic behind each of the questions on the form
The objective was never to discriminate against a child or a family on the basis of race or colour,
the spokesperson said
The office of Quebec’s minister of social services, Lionel Carmant, says it is satisfied with the changes to the registration form
Lebrun, whose thesis sparked the change, says the revised registration isn’t perfect but is a step in the right direction. And though she understands it’s important to put children with the right parents, the previous way of doing things was unacceptable, she said
From the moment you have a practice that is unconstitutional, you are legally obliged to find an alternative,
she said
I think if there is one state agency that should not commit discrimination against [children of colour], it’s probably youth protection
CBC News
