A Letter to Share

Please think about joining the cause! This is from the PEI Adoption Coalition- but we should ALL be concerned! Please take the time to dash off a letter or even an e-mail. THANKS!!

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Hello all - the following letter can be copied into emails, shared
through yahoo groups and forwarded to the people identified. We've
put names and addresses at the bottom of the letter, along with a note
on who should be copied - this part should obviously be removed prior
to sending. We should encourage people to personalize the letter if
possible.

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Premier Robert Ghiz
95 Rochford Street
P.O. Box 2000,
Charlottetown , PE
C1A 7N8
rwjghiz@gov.pe.ca

Dear Premier Ghiz:

I am writing to express support for the adoptive parents of Prince
Edward Island – the very province known for the story of a famous
orphan – who have raised concerns with the provincial government
regarding the international adoption programs in the province.

Island families have requested a reversal of the policy decision
regarding the Waiting Child program – a decision that has eliminated
any waiting child referrals where matching is done by the agencies.
These processes are currently accepted by every other province in the
country and the waiting child program is virtual inaccessible outside
of this system. I encourage you to follow the processes set out by
China, whereby the agencies are delegated the authority to do the
matching (respecting of course the Province's final role in approving
every match). Families with open waiting child applications are being
affected by this decision at this very moment.

Island families have also requested concrete regulations and policies
with regards to all aspects of international adoption, ranging from
country programs available to Island families, to age of child, to
sibling groups, to single adoption, to family eligibility guidelines,
to concurrent adoptions, and to transparency & appeals.

Families in your community have also raised concerns regarding
accountability from the provincial government. By allowing each and
every family to review their referrals when they arrive in PEI,
families would be able to supply additional information or make
requests for homestudy amendments should there be discrepancies
between the referral details and the child request. It would be
regrettable to have families lose their only chance at adoption simply
because the Province has decided not to share information until and
only if the referral sent in their name is approved.

I urge you to commit to an active support of the international
programs and to clearly embrace and formalize options for Island
families. I encourage you to investigate the underlying reasons for
the Province's decision to effectively stop the international adoption
of children with medical needs, and, also, to respond to the PEI
Adoption Coalition's requests for an overall review of PEI's
international adoption procedures to ensure accountability and
transparency.

I suggest to you that there needs to be a very quick and serious
reconsideration of this action, or the face that PEI presents to the
country and, indeed, the world, will look not only ill-informed, but
also intolerant. I believe you will discover that the agencies are
well-equipped to undertake the matching as assigned by China, that
international adoption will yield benefits for the children, the
families, and PEI as a whole, and that these children are deserving of
the loving families who wish to adopt them, no matter what province
the families live in.

Sincerely yours,

CC: Hon. Doug W. Currie – Minister of Social Services and Seniors,
PEI dwcurrie@gov.pe.ca
PEI Adoption Coalition – peiadoptioncoalition@...
Nancy Russell (CBC) -- nancy_russell@cbc.ca (nancy "underscore"
Russell)

In PEI, please write your letters to Premier Ghiz and CC them to
Minister Currie, MPs Shawn Murphy, Wayne Easter, Lawrence MacAulay,
Joe McGuire, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Opposition Leader
Stephane Dion, the PEI adoption coalition group, and Nancy Russell of
the CBC.

Outside of PEI, please write your letters to the Premier of PEI,
Robert Ghiz, and CC it to the Premier of your province, Prime Minister
Stephen Harper and Opposition Leader Stephane Dion, and the PEI
adoption coalition group.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa
K1A 0A2
Fax: 613-941-6900
Harper.S@parl.gc.ca
pm@...

Shawn Murphy
75 Fitzroy Street, Suite 201
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
C1A 1R6
murphs1c@parl.gc.ca
Murphy.S@parl.gc.ca

Wayne Easter
P.O. Box 70
Hunter River, Prince Edward Island
C0A 1N0
Telephone: (902) 964-2428
Fax: (902) 964-3242
E-Mail: eastew1@parl.gc.ca
E-Mail: Easter.W@parl.gc.ca

Lawrence MacAulay
P.O. Box 1150, 551 Main Street, Suite 202
Montague, Prince Edward Island
C0A 1R0
Telephone: (902) 838-4139
Fax: (902) 838-3790
E-Mail: macaul1@parl.gc.ca

Joe McGuire
94 Central Street
Summerside, Prince Edward Island
C1N 3L3
Telephone: (902) 436-7333
Fax: (902) 436-0175
E-Mail: McGuire.J@parl.gc.ca

Stephane Dion
750 Marcel Laurin Boulevard, Suite 440
Saint-Laurent, Quebec
H4M 2M4
Telephone: (514) 335-6655
Fax: (514) 335-2712
E-Mail: dions1@parl.gc.ca
E-Mail: Dion.S@parl.gc.ca