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Adoption in Canada has emerged as one of the most prominent ways of having a family in recent years due to things like same sex marriage, couples with the inability to have children, or couples wanting to better the world by giving another child a home and love as well as support. Adoption in Canada is a way of providing children who may not have gotten a loving home at first with the chance to have a permanent home with a loving family.

1. The Definition of ‘Family’ in Ontario: The definition of family in Ontario and Canada has changed over the last few years to fit the ever changing society that Canada as a whole has. The importance of diversity in Ontario is written into laws and acts throughout Canada, referring to family as, “heterosexual couples, same-sex couples and single adults, with or without children.” Canada, as a whole, is an inclusive entity who gives everyone, regardless of race, social status, sexuality or income an equal chance to better themselves and others in society. In Canada, a ‘family’ is made up of, or can be made up of, many different characteristics and situations, but all of them are still considered to be a ‘family’ under Canadian law.

2. Adoption in Ontario:

2.1 The Cost of Adopting: Although adopting in Canada is encouraged and made accessible to all citizens the cost to adopt a child through a Private System and agency is very expensive. Most new adoptive parents want to adopt a newborn child, however this costs money. Through the Public System, adopting a child is free, but the children here are not babies, they are toddlers and teenagers who need homes. Most soon to be adoptive parents do not want to have to deal with the emotional damage or problems that these children and teens may have. The wait to adopt a child from the Public System is about a year. A Private Adoption, through an adoption agency costs around, “$15,000-$25,000 (for a child born in Canada) to about $25,000-$50,000+ (for a child born in the United States or overseas).”

2.2 Number of Children: Currently in Canada alone there are 78,000 children waiting to be adopted, out of these children, over 30,000 of them are children whose parents have had their parental rights terminated by the government and the children have been placed in government welfare care.

2.3: Applying: When a person or couple decides to adopt a child, no matter through what system, they enter into the application process. Firstly, the applicant will enter into a meeting procedure which outlines the procedure, timeline of the adoption, and if they are entering into a Public Adoption, the children that are available for them to adopt. Next, the applicant will complete a Formal Application. Here the applicants are asked a series of extremely personal questions, required to have a medical check and background as well as police checks are made on all parties on the application. From here the applicants enter into the final stage of being assessed which is the Home Study.

2.4: Home Study: A home study is conducted by a social worker, however completing this element of the application process takes a lot of time and the waiting period is based on whether there is a child waiting to be placed with the applicant or not. The Home Study is a process that allows the social worker to see if they applicant is fit to raise the child they may be given, however it is not an inspection alone, it also gives the applicant time to ask the social worker any questions that they may have about the process they have gone through or what they are about to enter into. This process is completed through a series of interviews with the applicant(s) and also additional interviews with family and friends are conducted to make sure they applicant is suitable to raise a child. From all these components a final decision to allow the applicant to adopt is made.

3. Types of Adoption: In Canada, there are three categories of adoption that the applicant can choose from.

3.1 Public When adopting from the Public System, the applicant is adopting a child who is in the care of the province and government, this child’s parents may have had their rights to take care of their child taken away or they were later placed for adoption by the parent. These children are known as ‘Canada’s Waiting Children’ and are toddlers to teenagers, they are placed in the care of the province and then placed in foster home to foster home until a permanent home can be found for them. Adopting though the public system costs nothing and offers some financial support if needed to help raise the child Counselling for these children is also made available because some of the children have experienced neglect and abuse and can need extra counselling to help the transition into a permanent home.

3.2 Private With Private Adoption, the majority of children put up for adoption are new born babies and small infants. Through this process, the birth mother gets to chose the home in which her child will be placed by going through applications and Home Studies to determine the best family that meets their wants for their child to be raised in. This process and form of adoption is not free and costs between $15,000 and $20,000 to adopt a child. In many cases, Private Adoptions are also Open Adoptions, meaning that the birth parents will request having access to their child, being updated on events in their lives and sometimes playing a role in their lives.

3.3 International International adoption is also known as ‘inter-country’ adoption. Adopting from another country almost always guarantees the adoptive parent(s) a newborn child however; it is also the most expensive of all the various forms of adoption. The average cost of adopting from overseas is between $20,000 and $40,000 and also requires the adoptive parent to travel overseas to pick up the child. The process of adopting internationally is the most tedious and time consuming, it can take years for an application to processed and approved. There are many problems that arise with international adoption, one of which is making the adoption process meet the standards of both the country the child isbeing adopted from and the standards of the country the child is being brought into. There is always the issue of racial and cultural differences, new parents are expected to make sure their adopted child always have a taste of where they come from so they do not feel alienated from their culture. There is no problem for these children with transition into Canadian lifestyles as the vast majority of these children are newborn babies.

4. Suspended Countries: Although adopting from other countries is permitted in Canada, there are some countries who are suspended that Canadians cannot adopt from, these include, Cambodia (except Quebec), Georgia, Guatemala, Liberia, Nepal, Haiti (suspension by New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan). The majority of these countries are suspended from being able to adopt from them because they have verystrict adoption laws and Canada’s system of adopting does not fit them. Other reasons may be because these countries still have diseases and medical problems that Canada has long ago gotten rid of. Suspending a country as a place of adoption is a preventative and country safety method.