Adoption: two weights, two measures?

2023 Author: Anita Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-07-31 02:08

Did you know that parents who adopt a child are not granted the same parental leave as parents of natural children? Why is it double standards?

Does the government make a distinction between a biological child and an adopted child? Of course not you will answer me! The government encourages its citizens to have more children, it is recognized. It sets up programs to support young families who then see their income reduced while expenses are numerous and significant. The Quebec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP) is a good example you say? Simple, fast and favoring the families who benefit from these benefits, the government has undoubtedly done its homework this time.

For fifty weeks, a couple whose wife has given birth to a child can spend quality time at home with the child. For five weeks, the dad can be at home too with his wife and child. What could be more normal after all? Such a young child needs security, needs to feel his parents close. He will develop under the tender eyes of one of his parents who will have made the decision to stay at home with him. This step passesso fast and is an incredible source of daily happiness. No one would dare to dispute the benefits of this period granted to the child.

Yet…

Did you know, however, that parents who adopt a child are not granted the same “privilege”? Adoptive mothers do not have access to maternity benefits for 15 or 18 weeks. Adoptive dads don't have access to paternity benefits either. The reason? When I spoke to an employee of the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan, he answered me most naturally that maternity benefits are intended to allow the woman to recover from childbirth. Paternity benefits, on the other hand, are used for the man to provide support to his wife who is recovering from childbirth. Since I did not give birth, I do not have to recover from childbirth. It's really easy to understand. What a beautiful logic!

The needs of an adopted child

Are we forgetting that adopted children go through a period of great insecurity and instability? Would we forget that these little bits of choice at the end of the world are survivors who must manage to adapt to a new country, new people, a new language, new sounds, new smells, a new climate? Would we forget that adoptive parents have to work hard so that this little one develops a bond of attachment, that he is secure, that they understand that from now on we will be his parents and that we will bethere no matter what? Would we also forget that adoptive parents experience very strong emotions and that exhaustion awaits them? Because in addition to the long process, the stress suffered, the trip, the contact with the adopted child with whom they must quickly create a bond while they are in a foreign land, the jet lag and the great fatigue, they need to rest a little too.

In adoption, if there is one of the most important terminology it is the notion of t-e-m-p-s and this is precisely what the government amputates from us without batting an eyelid. All adoption specialists will tell you: a minimum period of one year is required to sink the family foundations in adoption. A minimum period of one year is required to provide the child with the security he will need to trust and start well in his new life where the benchmarks he had had since birth have all gone from one one shot. For my part, I chose to spend a year with my daughter at home and to give 3 of my weeks off to my spouse so that he could spend some time with us when we returned home with our daughter and recover from jet lag. Otherwise, he would have started working again the day after we arrived! So that means a little over three months at my expense.

Financial issue, but important

Can most adoptive parents afford it? When we think of the costs that adoptive parents must pay to regularize the adoption, I would say to youthat our savings are melting like snow in the sun and that we are going into debt. So no, we don't really have the means. But I'm going to do it anyway, for my daughter's sake. You don't have a chance to make the adoption transition well. Either we get there or, sooner or later, we get hurt. Pressure has been made, a petition filed. Nothing has obviously changed since then, on the government side. Anyway, in my bank account, it's still the same!

The Quebec Parental Insurance Plan, like all good things, comes to an end: after fifty weeks for biological parents, after thirty-seven weeks for adoptive parents. The logical consequence is therefore the return to work. It should be understood that since we were not at work during this year, we did not accumulate insurable weeks in the event of a problem. Does employment insurance provide something to ensure a minimum income in the event of layoff, illness or other unexpected life events at work? Of course yes, you will say, and you are not wrong. The reference period giving access to employment insurance normally consists of the 52 weeks preceding the filing of a claim. However, it is provided by law that the qualifying period may be extended to a maximum of 104 weeks if we were not in insurable employment for the following reasons:

• You were unable to work due to illness, injury, quarantine or pregnancy; or
• You were detained in ajail, penitentiary or other similar institution; or
• You were taking a training course or other employment-related activity approved by an authority designated by Human Resources and Social Development Canada; or
• You were receiving benefits under provincial law because you stopped working because continuing to work endangered you or your unborn child or the child you were nursing.

I therefore contacted an HRSDC representative to confirm that the terminology “pregnancy” also implied the notion of adoption within the meaning of their law. Well no! No pregnancy=no extension of the reference period possible.

Beyond the immense happiness generated by adoption, the discrimination of which adoptive parents are victims is strongly denounced, but is part of everyday life. After having discussed it with several adoptive parents, the discussions always turn on the questions which remain without logical answer. The wheel keeps turning, people will keep building families, and hopefully adoptive families will one day have the same rights as any other family.