Adopted babies face abuse, neglect: report

Babies in Nunavik’s Ungava Bay communities are increasingly being given up for adoption — and growing up with abuse and neglect.

That’s one conclusion drawn by Quebec’s Commission on Human Rights and the Rights of Children, which recently looked at youth protection services in the Ungava Bay communities of Nunavik.

The report tells one story about a baby given by her biological mother to a woman with a history of family violence and parenting problems.

The child, who suffered from severe asthma and repeated attacks of bronchitis and pneumonia, lived in a house with smokers. A 13-year old usually looked after the baby.

Social workers asked for an assessment of the woman’s suitability, but this was never carried out.

As the child grew, she missed medical appointments and was hospitalized on more than one occasion. She needed special milk, “which the mother did not bother to collect, giving her tea instead,” and lived in a house that was dirty, lacked food and had only one bedroom for four children and three adults.

Adoption isn’t new in Nunavik. In the past, Inuit customary adoption increased survival, by connecting families and helping the elderly.

But today, with 20 to 30 per cent of babies born in Nunavik given up for adoption, “the number of children given up for adoption is growing, and the aim of biological parents is sometimes simply to get rid of the children, rather than give them away as a mark of love,” the report says.

One in three children under youth protection in these communities were given up for adoption as babies, the report says.

Most residents who spoke with commission investigators said that customary adoption should be maintained. They expressed respect for the tradition, but dismay at the fate of some children, and they said customary adoption needs more supervision.

But the forced adoption of unwanted babies by unwilling or unfit parents was mentioned as a particular problem: “children who are unwanted by their biological parents and by their adoptive parents have no chance of being happy, fulfilled and problem-free.”

A youth protection worker said “the problem is that biological parents will give their child to a friend who has the same problems they do, and the child is then neglected or rejected by the adoptive family, too.”

In Nunavik, Youth Protection is supposed to ensure certain standards are maintained for traditional adoptions, although the report found “mistrust towards social services’ involvement in adoptions.”

“The idea of social services interference in family arrangements concerning the transfer of a child is rejected; while, on the other hand, people want the children to be protected, which implies some form of intervention.”

Police say adopted children have the most problems with the law because they are the “whipping boys” of families. Doctors say adoptive parents care less about their adopted children’s health.

A resolution from Makivik Corp. discourages any adoption by non-Inuit or long-term placement with Qallunaat families.

However, this has also caused problems, too, the report notes, when non-Inuit parents have been asked to adopt babies from Inuit mothers.
Meanwhile, no system is in place to objectively evaluate adoptive families.