The Sixties Scoop in Canada

Canada as a nation has been striving to characterize itself as more ?Canadian? for decades. This has included numerous struggles and events such as protests, bans, and the creation of the Massey Commission, to encourage national development in the arts, and support major companies like the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and National Film Board (NFB). However, this has not been an easy task for the Canadian government, as major influences from below the border (the United States) have been captivating the Canadian audiences by large. American media has had a momentous revolutionizing effect on Canada, even through efforts made to define Canada with its own cultural identity.

The government attempts continually to revise the foster care system to serve children more proficiently. However, more problems ensue these diligent efforts and modifications. In the article, “Influences on the Mental Health of Children Placed in Foster Care,” author Caroline R. Ellermann concludes, “Once in foster care, ongoing health problems and risk for further complications are exacerbated by (1) removal from the biological home and the trauma of parent separation,” (Ellermann, 2007, p. S23) The system designed to eradicate child abuse erroneously generated a trickle effect of problems. By the removal of these children, the government transpired additional emotional and health problems. Unbeknownst to the effect of the separation anxiety caused by the removal from biological family, these children became subject to abuse from the foster care system.

In the past year and a half with events like DPAL, Native American rights along with the rights of other minority groups in the United States haven’t been shown the same rights as Caucasians when it comes to civil liberty issues. In 1978 Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). Under the ICWA tribes have significant input on whether the removal of children from them is necessary, “efforts must be made to support and rehabilitate a family before its child is placed into foster care or adopted.” (Ryznar, 2013). The ICWA also was enacted to examine how it “establishes standards for state-court child custody proceedings involving Indian children… “the consequences…of abusive child welfare practices that [separated] Indian children from their families and tribes through adoption or foster care placement, usually in non-Indian homes.” (Cornell University Law School). In 2009, a couple from South Carolina, Melanie and Matthew Capobianco, wanted to adopt a baby whose father (Dusten Brown) was an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation and mother Christina Maldonado of Hispanic background. Due to Brown being a registered member of the Cherokee Nation, and under the ICWA, a child that

Parents wishing to adopt have challenged the adoption laws regarding American-Indian children. For many decades, people wanting to adopt African-American children from disturbing situations have been put through several issues. A law was passed called the “Indian child welfare act” to end what was then a common practice. The state claims they thought that American-Indian children were better off in homes with non-Indian parents. A handful of recent lawsuits say the federal law and similar legislation at state levels make it harder to find stable homes for children. they’ve had many cases fall apart, because parents adopting don’t want the children. Most adopting parents believe it's unfair to them if they can’t adopt American-Indian children.

Foster Care and Adoption are the most multi-faceted areas of child welfare. Foster care consists of placing children outside of the custody of their parents or legal guardians. This out-of-home placement can be temporary or long-term. Adoption on the other hand, consists of the legal and permanent process that establishes a parent/child relationship between individuals not related biologically (Downs, Moore, & McFadden, 2009). These two areas of child welfare are constantly evolving and the decisions made on a child’s behalf can affect many areas of their biological, spiritual, social, and emotional wellbeing.

For many years, foster care has been a difficult subject throughout our society. When the idea of foster care comes to mind, many immediately think of screaming children, distressed parenting and uphill battles. Before foster care existed in the United States, orphaned children were sent to orphanages. While these institutions were often the best option available to children with nowhere else to go, they often lacked the necessary staff, structure and resources to adequately care for all of the children in need. As a result, some orphanages were overcrowded, and children lived in poor conditions. Some children even died due to the lack of sufficient care (Adoptions, 2017). In order to give children better living situations, the United

Even in places where the minority population is small the amount of children removed from their families was still large, in fact about three times as high as their proportion in the general population. “Bremner (1974) states, “Although the rate of child welfare services to Negro children was higher…behavioral and emotional problems were reported for a considerably smaller proportion of Negro children… This raised the question for some professionals that whether placement of minority-group children is precipitated by poverty and lack of supportive resources, rather than disruptive family relationships or perceived habits of the child” (p. 8). The removal rate of Native American children was high as well. Like African American children there were obvious overlaps between removal from the home and poverty. As well during that time most social workers were Caucasian and tended to have different cultural standards in terms of family life therefore creating convolution. Like the circumstances of Native American children being taken from their home in the turn of the century, Native American children, when taken from their home often lost their culture and

4). In the scope of adoption, it is evident that child welfare agencies use the majority of their available resources for placing children in foster families, investigating child-abuse cases, and providing other family services. “As a consequence, they do not possess adequate additional resources for efficiently placing children in adoptive homes once they are available for adoption, depriving many children of the benefits a stable, permanent home provides” (Snell, 2000, p. 2). The current government operated child welfare system is detrimental to the children involved due to its inability to ensure their safety and

Similar to other countries, Canada implemented a foster care system. As defined by Merriam-Webster, foster care is “a situation in which for a period of time a child lives with and is cared for by people who are not the child's parents”. Children can be placed in the foster system for numerous reasons, but their placement can be caused by the parent(s) or child (Craft). Yet Canada’s foster system doesn’t measure up to the number of children placed into the system. As a developing country, Canada’s foster care system is flawed and needs policies put in place to help fix it.

Despite attempts in the foster care system agencies under the guidelines of the “Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997” (ASFA) to locate suitable homes and families for foster children, many remain in foster care. “Too often, Child Welfare policy and the agencies responsible for it – offices that respond to child abuse and neglect, oversee foster care placements, and seek to reunite children with their parents to find adoptive families- are out of sight and out of mind except for

Although these children were put up for adoption their families didn’t want them to lose their Indian culture or privileges. In 1978, The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) and the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA) were established. Weiser (2015) stated,” ICWA addressed the widespread practice of transferring the care and custody of Indian children to non-Indians. It recognized the authority of tribal courts to hear the adoption and guardianship cases of Indian children and established a strict set of statutory guidelines for those cases heard in state court.” (Weiser, 2015, p. 6) ICWA made it easy for Indians to be able to discover information about their ancestors and find their biological parents. This Act also created an environment that doesn’t allow growth. Even though these children are raised close to home, ICWA doesn’t allow them to grow and experience the world off of a reservation. Some parents wanted to give their child up for adoption to offer them a better opportunity but ICWA doesn’t allow these children to go very far from the environment they were born into. Most reservations are in poverty and if someone was to try to leave his or her tribe behind they would be shamed. Weiser (2015) continued, “The American Indian Religious Freedom Act promised to "protect and preserve for American Indians their

More than 100 000 children and youth in Canada are under the protection of Child and Family Services and the majority of them enter the system with emotional, physical or behavioural problems that need to be addressed (Hebert, P. C., & MacDonald, N., 2009). A foster child is described as a “young person who is temporarily entrusted to the care of adults other than his parents or legal guardian” (Being a Foster Child). There are many reasons why child welfare workers pull children out of their homes and place them in the foster system. Placement can be either voluntary or involuntary: parents may give up their rights to a child when they feel they cannot care for it, or a child can be removed from a home for its own safety (Being a Foster Child, 2017). Most of the time, birth parents are not able to care for their own children, due to financial problems or extreme illness (Foster Care, 2017). In other cases, the parent cannot handle the child, because it may have physical or mental disabilities, or display uncontrollable or criminal behavior (Being a Foster Child, 2017). Other children suffer from the

Imagine being a child removed from your home in the middle of the night. Waken out of your sleep handed to someone you do not know and being taken to place where all the people around you are strangers. The removal process can be painful, mentally, physically and emotionally to children. The number of losses experienced by a child when they are removed from their home can be countless. Although, there are more White children in the foster care than any other race, research suggests African America children remain in foster care placements for a longer period of time and the chances of reunification with their family is greatly diminished (Knott and Giwa, 2012). The Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) report notes

The necessity of adoption in the world is astounding. Currently, there is an estimated 143 million orphans worldwide (Wingert, vol.151). As of 2007, there were 513,000 children living in foster care within the United States alone (Rousseau 21:14). International adoption in the United States was jumpstarted post World War II as a way of helping those children who were left homeless, after war had taken their parents. Although there are thousands of healthy children awaiting adoption in the United States, several American couples still turn to foreign adoption when seeking potential children. Americans often fail to realize the need for intervention within their own country and their duty to take care of domestic affairs before venturing to

Since 1776, the United States of America has had a growing problem with orphans and childhood adoption. Orphanages become overpopulated while foster homes shelter up to 3 children on average. The foster care system has been viewed as positive reinforcement for American homes; yet the point of fostering children is consistently overlooked. Adoption is necessary for orphans, foster children, or children in abusive homes. The act of adopting a child comes with positive benefits and fiscal responsibility, such as government assistance and wiser spending. Children obtain a healthy childhood with a familiar sense of belonging. The drawback of this is the long governmental process of petitioning for adoption. Seeking the birthparents, if they are alive, retrieving consent, being fiscally responsible, and having a safe environment for the child to grow up in are all responsibilities to look forward to when adopting a child. The adoption rate in the United States of America needs to increase dramatically, as there are social benefits, mental health improvements, and economical advantages for families who adopt.