Advocacy

Guardianship is a court process based on the Family Law Act that offers a way for anyone to create permanency for a child by becoming their guardian. This article explores its many similarities to adoption and its key differences. 

What is guardianship? 

Becoming a guardian means that you are responsible for all the decisions, care, supervision, and day-to-day decisions for a child. When parents are absent or unable to raise their children, other parents, family members, or grandparents often step in to help. 

From time to time, people express concerns over the profiles we circulate of kids in BC who are waiting for adoptive families. In this issue’s Opinion column, a social worker and an adoptive parent explain how they protect kids’ privacy, and why profiles matter. Want to share your opinion on an adoption-related topic?  We’d love to hear from you! Contact us at editor@bcadoption.com.

Why profiles matter: a social worker’s perspective

By Kirsty Stormer

The Indigenous Perspectives Society (IPS), formerly Caring for First Nations Children Society, is a registered charitable non-profit founded in 1994. IPS has played a significant role in the delivery of training and policy development in the Indigenous child welfare field. We interviewed IPS staff about their recent move into providing support and training to caregivers of Indigenous children who are in foster care.

For many youth, foster and adoptive homes can be safe places for care and support when the biological family does not provide appropriate care. Unfortunately, many lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth are placed in foster homes where their caretakers do not understand or accept these youth because of their gender or sexual orientation.

Catherine is the co-founder of the non-profit organization We Are Adopted/Adoptees Association. In this article she draws on her personal experience as an adoptee and an adoptive mother as well as her professional experience as a registered clinical counsellor to explain why shame and adoption are so intertwined.

 Editor's note: Cindy Packer, the matriarch of the Packer family, sadly passed away in December of 2018. AFABC wishes all the best to the Packer's during this difficult time, and we know that Cindy's kind and generous legacy lives on in her children.

Three cultures plus infinite love equals one unique family!

In 2007, the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society and the Assembly of First Nations filed a human rights complaint against the Canadian Federal government, alleging that Canada’s failure to provide equitable and culturally based child welfare services to First Nations children on-reserve amounts to discrimination on the basis of race and ethnic origin. In January, the Tribunal ruled against the government. In this piece, Andrea Auger of the Caring Society reflects on the importance and implications of this decision.

Tim Windle lives in Langley, where he’s a leader in FASD advocacy and education. In this interview, Tim describes the difficult but ultimately successful process of identifying, advocating for, and creating the supports his daughter with FASD needed to reach her potential and live safely and successfully in the community.

An adoptee reflects on black diversity in Canada and the importance of a global Black Lives Matter movement.

Racism: a Canadian reality

Here in Canada, anti-black racism is usually denied, ignored, and played down. The classic response from non-black Canadians to mentions of systemic anti-black racism and injustice is “well, there is more racism in the US than there is here”. This irks me to my core because it shuts down conversation and dismisses our experiences.

Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond is BC’s first Representative for Children and Youth. She was appointed in 2006, and was re-appointed for a second five-year term in 2011. A judge on leave from the Saskatchewan Provincial Court, she holds a doctorate of law from Harvard and has worked as a criminal law judge in youth and adult courts, with an emphasis on developing partnerships to better serve the needs of young people in the justice system. She lives in Victoria with her family. We asked Ms.