PEI In the News

If you click on the header above, you'll be ferried to the local CBC news coverage on international adoption in PEI. (On the map above, PEI is the little island near Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, to the east.) I'm not sure how long the link will be active, so the gist of the story is this: families living in Prince Edward Island who are trying to adopt their children from another country are as mad as hell about the way their Government has been treating them, and they've called them to task on the issues.

Yay! I love Democracy! But it extracts its pound of flesh, for sure. Kudos to the families who have spoken up in the media, to those who have been meeting with officials, and to those who are raising awareness wherever they can. It is not easy. But it is oh so necessary, unfortunately.

I'll be waiting (with fingers crossed) to hear how the next meeting with the families and the Province goes. I'm hoping the Province will agree to permit any families who have already applied to the Waiting Child Program to proceed with their application as they would have a few months ago. I also hope that the Province seeks a new legal opinion on the status of adoption agency matches in the WCP. Likely, their current argument hinges on a technicality... something that could be "fixed" or solved if the will to do so is there.

Heck, what I really hope is that all the staff dealing with international adoption get replaced with people who are forward-thinking, open-minded and compassionate. OK, that's a long shot, I know. But that's my dream for EVERY province. No family who wishes to adopt internationally should have to face antagonism and suspicion from their own Province. And, far too often, this is just what they get. Sad, really. It's not like this in every province, I know. But it is in at least 3 of them... and even one is too many.