Before

the coming into place of the Register of Civil Status, our adoptions were simply recorded at the baptismal certificate held by religious authorities and the

parishes in the territory, so, basically, the Church

took care of our registrations. But with the coming into place of the

provincial civil status registry, the recognition of

the prominent effects of our adoptions on the filiation of our children was considered

a necessity. This is because customary adoptions are still a common occurrence in

Nunavik.

Le Président (M. Ouellette) : Mme

Labranche, yes.

Mme Labranche (Elena) : «Nakurmiik». Customary adoption is a vibrant and alive practice in Nunavik. We estimate that about one out of four or five newborns are adopted

according to our custom up to today. As an average, 50

children are, more or less, customary adopted every year in Nunavik. We have

about 300 newborns each year within the region.

Adoptions will take place through an exchange of consent, usually verbally,

which usually happens before the child is even born. It generally involves members of the

immediate and extended family, and a decision over the customary adoption will be immediate and permanent, with the direct

effects of the filiation of the child and two sets of parents. The adoptive parents are to

become the father and mother of the child, his «anaana» and «ataata», and the biological

mother is to be referenced as the

«puukuluit». The adoptive parents have the whole rights and obligations towards the child to

ensure food, shelter, care, and etc.

M. Pirti (Andy) : Thank

you, Jobie, for the

introduction, and thanks for having me, everybody. Merci beaucoup pour cette opportunité.

Customary

adoption concerns all Nunavik

Inuit. At the second forum of discussion on adoption, hosted by Makivik in 2009 and

2010, all 50 participants declared having been either adopted, or being

adoptive parents, or biological parents who gave one child for adoption.

Under our custom, giving a child for adoption is considered a gift.

I was myself given and received as a gift, as

I was adopted by my parents... Pirti and... Pirti. The effects of my adoption, as for other Inuit adoptions, were permanent. My parents needed to see a

recognized parental authority on me. Like any parent, when I was of minor age,

they needed to be able to order my passport,

register me to school or authorize my health services. Also, they needed to

appear on my birth certificate as my parents officially in rights. Luckily for

me, I was able to benefit from the administrative

procedure put in place between the Nunavik region and the Québec Register of

Civil Status in the 1990s

Tukkiapik (Jobie) : Thank you, Andy. Also, luckily for Andy, his birth

certificate confirmed the actual effects of

our custom on his filiation, thanks to the administrative procedures developed

with the Civil Status and applied since more than 20 years now. But

uncertainty still remains, since some of the court decisions have questioned

the validity of this administrative arrangement... or rather why Québec has not

yet versed its proceedings at its laws. We think

that Bill 113 will resolve this uncertainty once and for all. It follows years

of discussions, numerous consultations held in Nunavik and elsewhere and

the work and report of the working group on adoption.

Two previous bills have died by the

order of paper. We really hope that this is the right time and we are thanking

the Minister of Justice for

that, as for the significant level of collaboration which took place throughout the entire process and even in the

actual drafting of Bill 113.

Mme Grey (Minnie) : The Nunavik health and social services, like Makivik, support the bill as proposed, subject to the comments offered at our joint brief, which you have

already read.

notably touched upon the redundant uses at the bill of the notions of the «interest of the child» and of «the

rights of the child» or «the consent». These concepts are an inherent part of

our customary regime on adoption. They should

not be repeated and repeated in the proposed provisions, as they are already

part of the Inuit customary adoption and do not need to be appraised

accordingly. Also, considering

the health board's role with the Nunavik director of youth protection, we welcome the fact that customary

adoption will now be listed as an available tool in the development of

an intervention plan. That being said, we

have to remember that the customary adoption institution is of a different

order than the Youth Protection Act, and the latter regime of exception has to

respect the distinct and privileged nature of this aboriginal right. A dialogue may be established between the two

institutions, but in no way shall it be a subordination of one order to

another.

Lastly, we call for pursuing the

collaboration with the Government of Québec regarding our other Inuit customary care regimes on

children and families. Bill 113 provides a solution regarding one aspect

of these regimes, the one relating to adoption with permanent effects on

the filiation, but, just like for our First Nations other customary care

regimes... exist in Nunavik, which may have

been eroded or impacted by the state regimes on youth and families. We need to

pursue our common work to assess the scope of measures that could be put in

place for renewing the role of these important traditions for our youth and our

families.

Le Président (M.

Ouellette) : Mme Labranche.

Mme Labranche (Elena) : Another area where ongoing

collaboration is required is on the transboundary

effects of our Inuit customary adoptions.

As a matter of fact, adoptions may

take place between Inuit from Nunavik or Nunavut and also from Nunatsiavut. Inuit families are interconnected throughout the

entire Inuit Nunangat. Inuit customary adoptions may validly happen despite the different provincial or territorial

jurisdictions, but effects on the filiation of the adopted children and their

families need to be reconciled between the

different Civil Status departments. We therefore call for a creation of a

specific Québec Inuit table to assess

a protocol implementation of Bill 113 when it comes to Inuit adoptions without

borders and propose solutions, where need be.

Makivik

and the regional health board are more than ready to collaborate with the

Government on this issue.

Le Président (M.

Ouellette) : Thank you. Are you doing the conclusion

or... Ah! OK, Mr. Pirti does the conclusion. Mr. Pirti.

Pirti (Andy) : We also advocate for having support offered for

implementing Bill 113.

This bill calls for the

designation of aboriginal competent authorities which are to be responsible as

a liaison or interface mechanism to inform the Register of Civil Status

whenever a customary adoption will take place. For the Nunavik region, that

means that Makivik will have to designate a competent authority for the Inuit

nation, this in collaboration with the

health board. It will imply providing means of action to this new identity in

the development of its working framework and then, publicly, an

outreach. To ensure the success of this new administrative measure, we request

that adequate resources be offered by Québec to the Nunavik region.

Le Président (M. Ouellette) : You

conclude?

M. Pirti (Andy) : One more.

Le Président (M. Ouellette) : Ah!

M. Tukkiapik (Jobie) : Thank you. In conclusion, we intend to

carry the new responsibilities devolved to us under

Bill 113 with enthusiasm and diligence, but, considering the number of

customary adoptions which are taking place regularly,

we suggest that the coming into force of these new provisions happen at the

same time as a designation of our Inuit competent authority in order to

prevent any void of application between the new liaison procedure and the old

administrative arrangement still in place with the Register of Civil Status.

We remain available to discuss

with the Minister of Justice this important element as well as other elements mentioned

in our brief. But, at present, on behalf of our two organizations and their

representatives, we are pleased to appear today in front of your

Committee. And again I wanted to thank you for hearing us out, when we were not

available last week. So thank you for the opportunity.

Le Président (M.

Ouellette) : Thank you, Mr. Tukkiapik. Madam Minister.

Mme Vallée : Merci, M. le

Président. Alors, dans un premier temps, simplement saluer les juristes de l'État

qui nous accompagnent une fois de plus dans nos travaux. Alors, on a hâte de

vous retrouver là où on est habitués de vous croiser.

Mr. Tukkiapik and your group,

thank you very much for sharing your comments and your views on Bill 113. It

was important for us to hear

you and it was important for us

to make sure that we would be available to exchange.

I'm going to start with

basically the end of your presentation. You explained that you already have a

lot of customary adoptions that the society is dealing with on a yearly basis.

You already have an administrative support to organize...

and I saw in your brief that you made reference to all the forms that already

exist with regards to the different administrative

steps, the declaration of Inuit customary adoption form. You have information

regarding the parents, the child. So there's a lot of work already...

and done a lot.

How long do you think it would

take the Makivik Society to be able to put in place the necessary steps to

implement or to give full power to Bill 113? What are you going to be needing?

Because you're asking for support. You want

to make sure that there's no delay, and that the bill will be put in place, and

that there won't be any difficulties between

the way that things were done previously and the implementation of the bill. So

how long do you think it's going to take? Do you have an idea? And what

are the resources that you are looking for when you're saying, «We hope that Québec will be supportive of our society»?

Le Président (M.

Ouellette) : Who is answering? Mr. president.

Tukkiapik (Jobie) : Thank you. Well, if there are more questions, I

can refer to our legal counsel, and Minnie has been on

this file for quite a while.

our present situation, we're already looking out for the enrollment status of

beneficiaries in our region, so we have a kind of procedure in place already. For us,

I feel that it would not take long at all to get this in effect. For sure,

we need the support to eventually, probably,

maybe get more staff than now, but, in terms of time, I could say... maybe

within a year, once it's in place, or something like that.

But,

as we said in our brief, it also has to happen at the same time that the bill

is adopted, so that we don't have a void there where the adoptions are being carried

out now and in our customs that are there now. So that's very important.

have many examples of people of our own, Inuit, that have been caught between

the cracks, where they don't have identity, and we'd like to avoid that. So, administratively, the

procedure to get this in place, we can turn around quite quickly on this

one.

Le Président (M. Ouellette) : Madam

Minister.

Mme Vallée : You mentioned that there's a general form, more usual of customary

adoption, but you also mentioned that there

were other forms of adoptions or of ways of taking care of a child that were in

place. Some of the groups that we've

heard last week, especially... I think it was the Attikameks, they suggested

that we put in place a provision for the delegation of the parental

authority. Sorry, I'm trying to use the terms in French and in English. But

they suggest that.

Would that kind of a suggestion be something that you

would consider being useful for the communities that you represent?

Le Président (M.

Ouellette) : Mme Grey.

Mme Grey (Minnie) : Yes. We need to distinguish between

customary care and customary adoption. We are here to promote our right to continue our customary

adoption. It's our tradition. It's something that we still practice today. It's

not to say that we don't have a customary care. For example — I'm a grandmother now — if my daughter, having a three-year-old daughter, decides that she would like

to take two years of study without taking care of her child, naturally, I would agree with her to take care of my three-year-old

granddaughter. That's customary care. We all do that within families, I think. But here we're talking about customary

adoption, a traditional practice that has been done for many years. So, when

we're talking and promoting for the adoption of Bill 113, we're talking

about customary adoption, not customary care.

Mme Vallée : And, for you, what, I understand, is

the main difference is the permanent effect of the

adoption versus the temporary...

Grey (Minnie) : ...

Vallée : ...that has to do with the

care.

Mme Grey (Minnie) : ...practice it. We just want to see it

recognized in the civil status, because, as we've

heard... Andy is lucky to have made his

paperwork done properly, but, to this day, when we talk about a child that had

been born from an Inuit family living

in Ontario and has been adopted to a family in

Kuujjuarapik, for example, that person... that person will be 14 years old, wants to go on a

school trip outside of Canada, his

adoptive parents have no authority over that, so the other parents living in Ontario have to be involved. This is something where it's

really extremely important. When a custom adoption is being

done, it's verbally done between families, and, right now, through Makivik, we

record all this, and they're now

recognized, but we need... in order to get away from that bureaucracy of having

to do these forms with these people and those people, we need to develop

a system in place, an authority within Nunavik, and with collaboration with Québec, that that filiation is recognized

and then it's put on the Québec

birth certificate.

Le Président (M.

Ouellette) : Madam Minister.

Mme Vallée : You also made a point of saying there are too

many references to «the interest of the child» in some of the terms that are

used in the bill, and I understand that, for you, it goes without saying, it's

part... if I understand correctly the presentation that you made, it's unnecessary to use the

term, because it goes without saying in customary adoption.

Then,

if it goes without saying, what is the problem with the fact that the terms are

being used in Bill 113?

Le Président (M.

Ouellette) : Mme Grey.

Mme Grey (Minnie) : I think history has shown, with the

introduction of foreign laws or foreign ways of doing things... We recognize, as Quebeckers, as Inuit in

Nunavik, that, yes, there is the Youth Protection Act to protect the

rights of the children, to ensure their safety and that they grow up not

neglected and that they're not in danger.

We recognize that there is already a

law, but our customs are also unwritten to ensure that we raise our children properly. I think, in

every society, unfortunately, we see children that are not cared for. But we

already have the law in Québec,

which, we believe, having been imposed, in a way, in our society, has created a

lot of negative impacts within our society,

within our communities, and we believe that by bringing back some of our...

well, by bringing back and continuing to

use our traditions and having them recognized, it can empower the community,

you know, to take on the responsibility of better care of children.

Foreign law really cannot be imposed, should not impose itself on our customary

practices.

I believe that the Youth Protection

Act and the DYP can be linked and use this Bill 113 as a tool, but their roles should only be as an opinion and not to be about consent. The

consent should be between the adoptive parents and the people giving their

child away.

Le Président (M.

Ouellette) : Madam Minister.

Vallée : But, actually, Youth

Protection does not have to give their consent, they give a notice, or «un avis», as we find in 543.1. But it's not a consent

that has to be given by Youth Protection, it's basically just a notice.

I'm trying to find the right term. But it's an «avis». It's quite different of

the consent.

Le Président (M.

Ouellette) : Mme Grey.

Mme Grey (Minnie) : Maybe I used the word «consent» in a

wrong way, but there is already a lot of imposition of the Youth Protection Act in our society. So, when

we look at 543.1 in the proposed bill, we believe that... when you go down to the third paragraph, «the competent

authority issues a certificate attesting the adoption after making sure

that it was carried out according to

custom», we believe that the rest of the paragraph should not even be included,

because it alludes to : «...[this] authority also makes

sure, in light of an objective appraisal, that the adoption is in the interest

of the child.»

We would like to see the

Youth Protection Act and the customary adoption law be able to work together without one being more authoritative than the other. It's basically

what we're trying to say.

Mme Vallée : ...but

the consent is the consent of the parents, make sure that the consent of the

parents is given without any kind of pressure. That's

the objective of that.

Grey (Minnie) : Yes. Well, there can never be a customary adoption if

both parents don't consent.

Le Président (M.

Ouellette) : Thank you, Mme Grey. Mme la députée de Joliette.

Hivon :

Oui. Bonjour. Hello. Welcome. We're very happy to be able to

hear you today.

Juste un petit moment pour que je salue à mon tour les juristes de

l'État qui nous font encore une fois l'honneur de leur présence et leur dire que je leur souhaite un

règlement négocié pour eux comme pour nous. Alors, je vais poursuivre en

français. Si vous voulez mettre vos écouteurs. Au besoin.

Bien,

je veux vous remercier. De ce que je comprends du dossier, c'est que ce sont

vraiment les Inuits qui sont à

l'origine de la démarche pour qu'il y ait

une reconnaissance de l'adoption coutumière, parce que, chez vous, c'est

une pratique qui est existante et très

documentée — je vais y revenir — et parce que vous aviez, au fil du temps, eu

des travaux ou des demandes auprès du

Directeur de l'état civil pour que justement les choses puissent être

simplifiées, et on voulait qu'il n'y

ait pas de régime parallèle ou qu'il n'y ait pas d'assise... On voulait qu'il y

ait des assises dans notre droit. Donc, c'est pour ça que je suis

vraiment heureuse de pouvoir vous entendre, parce que je vous vois comme, je

dirais, les principaux instigateurs, peut-être, de cette démarche-là, et je

vous remercie. Je pense que vous avez, sans doute, fait un travail très sérieux, parce que vous êtes les seuls qui sont capables

de nous documenter... Je vois à la page 5 de votre mémoire que vous

parlez... en 1992, 23 % des Inuits de plus de 15 ans disaient qu'ils

avaient été adoptés, 57 % des individus âgés de plus de 15 ans qui avaient

été sondés avaient déclaré avoir été adoptés ou qu'ils avaient au moins donné un enfant en adoption, puis, en 2003,

c'était 33 % des répondants qui déclaraient avoir été adoptés selon la

coutume. Alors, je vous remercie parce que

ça nous donne, je dirais, pour une fois vraiment un portrait clair de

l'importance de la pratique coutumière. Alors, c'est pour ça que je veux

vraiment vous entendre.

comprends que chez vous, pour qu'on parle d'adoption coutumière... on pourra

revenir sur la garde coutumière, ou

«care», c'est d'autre chose, mais, l'adoption,

il faut que chez vous le lien de filiation nouveau soit établi clairement

avec les nouveaux parents. Est-ce que

je comprends que, dans tous les cas, le lien de filiation précédent est rompu

ou est-ce que les deux peuvent

coexister?

Le Président (M.

Ouellette) : Mr. president or Mme Grey? Mme Grey.

Mme Grey (Minnie) : You know, you ask this question... I

was at the Kuujjuaq Airport, yesterday, waiting for my flight to come here and I

noted a woman sitting in one of the chairs. I joined her and... We're from the

same community, but Kuujjuaq is becoming a big town, so we don't

see each other very often, except at the airport. So we sat down and we talked. And there was this

young man from up the coast, from our hometown. This lady lives in Kuujjuaq now because she has married a man from Kuujjuaq, and this young man... he's not so young anymore,

but he's a grown man, he has his own family and he was

sitting there, and we shook hands, and then he said to this woman, «Puukuluit.»

He used the word «puukuluit». That means «the container I came from». That's

the literal translation of a woman that gave a child for adoption. So this young man said «puukuluit» to this lady. I

said, «I'm sorry, I'm going to have to move over there because I have to

charge my computer.» So that was the end of their visit, because she had come

up to the airport to see him. And she was

very young when she had him, so she gave him up for adoption, and, to this

day... he's now a family man and he

calls her his «puukuluit» because he has grown up knowing that was his

biological mother. And this is the respect that we have. Andy, who just

spoke, was raised by his grandparents but knows his biological parents.

So this is something that is continued

today. And I have two siblings. My mother adopted me. They know where they came from as children

and they were my mother's children, my sister and brother, but, as we grow and

become adults, we live amongst... in

a community, and, you know, people sometimes get really confused as to saying

«my sister and my brother», and

somebody that doesn't understand this concept, they say, «Well, I thought

Minnie was your sister.» Oh, no, no,

no, she's my sister, my adopted sister, but those are my biological sisters and

brothers. But that's how we've lived all our life, and it continues

today.

Le Président (M. Ouellette) :

Mme la députée de Joliette.

Hivon : O.K. La

raison pour laquelle je pose cette question-là, c'est que, dans le projet de loi, on parle un peu en termes de rupture de filiation, donc d'une nouvelle

filiation. Là, ensuite, on a eu les Cris qui sont venus, qui nous ont

dit : Bien, il n'y a pas nécessairement de rupture, il peut y avoir coexistence de

deux... je parle juridiquement, là... ou dans la coutume. Puis là, à la fin de la semaine dernière, avec les Attikameks

et les Innus, là, on nous a dit qu'il pouvait même ne pas y avoir de

deuxième filiation et qu'on soit dans la garde, simplement.

Alors,

moi, ce que je veux comprendre, parce

que nous, on ne vous aura plus toujours

avec nous pendant qu'on va étudier le

projet de loi

article

par

article : Est-ce que pour

vous ces questions-là de filiation, de savoir s'il y a eu rupture du premier lien, s'il y a coexistence d'un

premier et d'un deuxième... si, peut-être, il n'y

a pas de deuxième lien, ce sont

des questions importantes? Un. Et, deux, est-ce que pour vous c'est

clair, dans la coutume inuite, si ces liens-là perdurent, s'ils sont

rompus? Je ne parle pas des liens connus dans la communauté, mais plus d'un point

de vue juridique ou social.

Président (M. Ouellette) : Mme Grey.

Le Président (M.

Ouellette) : Oh, Mr. Pirti. OK.

Pirti (Andy) : Je vais

essayer de répondre dans le contexte que je comprends aussi les questions qui

sont posées.

Il y a

des raisons pourquoi on a des lois. On a des protections, on essaie de protéger

les enfants, et c'est pour ça que ça

vient, les règlements qu'on a aujourd'hui. Mais vous devez aussi comprendre que vous, vous

avez une culture, vous avez des

coutumes, et parfois les coutumes que vous avez, ça vient des habitudes qui

viennent avec l'habitude de vie qu'on a dans notre société. Parfois, ce n'est pas toujours

perçu comme normal de l'extérieur, mais c'est votre culture, c'est votre

mode de vie. Nous aussi, on a des modes de vie, puis, la façon qu'on a adopté

nos façons de vivre, c'est parce qu'elles sont acceptées par la société. Oui, parfois, ça peut être un petit peu

difficile pour la mère de laisser l'enfant, mais il y a des raisons. À

la fin, on croit que c'est meilleur pour l'enfant, c'est meilleur pour la mère,

puis aussi on sait que la...

Moi,

j'ai été adopté, j'ai été bien aimé, je n'ai jamais senti qu'il n'y avait pas

l'amour dans ma famille, puis c'est socialement accepté. S'il y a une

adoption ici, dans le sud, je sais que normalement il doit y avoir la

protection du DYP, qu'on dit en anglais, qui

se trouve à être incluse, pour savoir qu'il n'y a pas de problème, dans cette

coutume, qui se passe, mais pour nous

autres c'est normal. Pour moi, dans mon village, j'avais ma mère biologique

puis aussi j'avais ma mère adoptive.

J'ai une bonne relation avec ma mère biologique aujourd'hui, mais, même si ma mère

adoptive n'est plus avec nous aujourd'hui... mais ça a agrandi ma

famille, et aujourd'hui je sens que j'ai une plus grosse famille, comme je dis,

adoptive puis je me sens toujours chanceux que j'ai été adopté par mes parents.

Le Président (M. Ouellette) : ...un court commentaire, Mme la députée de

Joliette, parce que votre temps est écoulé, là. Mais je l'ai fait avec

Mme la ministre. Je ne sais pas si vous avez un dernier commentaire pour...

Hivon :

Ah! oui, j'en avais, parce que je pense qu'on s'est peut-être perdus dans la

traduction.

Le Président (M.

Ouellette) : Oui. O.K.

Hivon :

Mais allez-y.

Le Président (M.

Ouellette) : Oui, M. le député de Borduas.

Jolin-Barrette : Merci, M. le Président. Mesdames messieurs, bonjour,

merci de participer aux travaux de la commission.

aussi, je vais saluer les juristes de l'État. Et, pour les gens qui nous

écoutent aussi, on peut noter qu'on est en session intensive présentement et que, généralement, on étudie longuement des projets de loi à cette période-ci de l'année, que le salon bleu est supposé

être ouvert jusqu'à 21 h 30, et maintenant le salon bleu est fermé,

et les parlementaires n'étudieront pas de projet de loi, à part en commission

parlementaire.

Donc,

je pense que ça a peut-être un lien également

avec le fait que les juristes soient sur la grève encore cette semaine

et que le gouvernement les ignore.

Ceci

étant dit, je vous remercie de votre présence et je vais vous poser quelques

questions notamment sur l'adoption transfrontalière, parce qu'il y a

différents groupes qui sont venus et qui nous ont dit : Dans le fond, on

voudrait mettre un mécanisme en place pour

que, les adoptions coutumières qui se réalisent sur des territoires

outre-frontières nationales comme le Canada

et les États-Unis ou entre les provinces, on puisse les

reconnaître. J'aimerais vous entendre là-dessus, parce que vous

l'abordez dans votre mémoire.

Le Président (M.

Ouellette) : Mme Grey? Mme Labranche.

Mme Grey (Minnie) :

Labranche.

Le Président (M.

Ouellette) : Mme Labranche.

Mme Labranche (Elena) : As Minnie had mentioned earlier that a

child being born in Ontario, being adopted

to someone in Nunavik... the papers don't match, they

don't follow, so this is why we would need a specific Québec table for it to be able to

recognize the civil status of the child, no matter where this child is coming

from when it's transported, I mean, from

different borders, that type of thing, or different territorial or provincial

boundaries. Therefore, we would like to have this specific table that,

you know, would be able to oversee all the paperwork and that the status of the

child is well accepted, no matter which territorial province this child is

coming from.

Le Président (M.

Ouellette) : M. le député de Borduas.

M. Jolin-Barrette : Donc, ce que vous réclamez, c'est que ça se retrouve sur une table,

mais est-ce que vous nous invitez à légiférer sur ça également, le fait

de faciliter la reconnaissance de l'adoption qui a été réalisée, supposons,

dans d'autres provinces canadiennes? Est-ce que vous souhaitez qu'on légifère

là-dessus, qu'on l'indique dans la loi?

Président (M. Ouellette) : Mme Labranche.

Mme Labranche (Elena) : Legally, it would be better for us to

be... joint effort on this issue for both of us to be

able to do the recognition of where this child is coming from, through the Civil Status.

Le Président (M.

Ouellette) : Mme Grey, yes.

Grey (Minnie) : I just would like to add a

little bit. There's already today a practice where many people have relatives in Nunavut or Labrador, and, in the event of a

Nunavik child being adopted to Nunavut, or vice versa, there has to be

some kind of an authority in the other jurisdiction that recognizes this

exchange. So this is what we would like to see happen.

Jolin-Barrette : O.K. Je comprends.

Le Président (M.

Ouellette) : M. le député de Borduas.

M. Jolin-Barrette : Oui. En lien avec le troisième alinéa du paragraphe 543.1, vous

disiez : Nous, on voudrait qu'il n'y ait pas du tout d'autorité

compétente, on souhaite un mécanisme en place, qui existe, qu'on mette en place

un mécanisme pour reconnaître l'adoption

mais qu'il n'y ait pas d'autorité compétente désignée. Dans le fond, vous

souhaitez avoir un arrangement, une convention mais sans que ça soit

formellement indiqué. C'est bien ça que je comprends?

Le Président (M.

Ouellette) : Mme Grey.

Mme Grey (Minnie) : We are not against a competent

authority. We ourselves agree that there should be a

kind of an authority, whether it be called competent or... probably name it an

Inuktitut name which most of you might not be able

to pronounce, but we would like to have an authority set up in Nunavik that

will be the go-to authority when issues of this nature arise, where adoption has to be discussed, or authorized, or

whatever, so that the proper paperwork will be done.

We're

not against the competent authority, we just have some objections to some of

the wording in that last paragraph, more

specifically «in light of an objective appraisal, that the adoption is in the».

We find that a little bit going away from the oral tradition and verbal

tradition of making an adoption happen. And, as I said earlier responding to Minister Vallée, yes, there's the Youth Protection

Act, we respect that, but we would also like to have a legal recognition

of our tradition, which can work hand in hand.

Le Président (M. Ouellette) :

M. le député de Borduas.

M. Jolin-Barrette : Oui. Puis je constate dans votre mémoire également,

là, qu'à la page 8 vous citez des décisions de la Cour du Québec où on a

eu à interpréter la

Loi sur la protection de la jeunesse, et là vous nous

dites, dans le fond : Bien, on a contesté parfois cette coutume-là

de l'adoption coutumière, et qu'il y avait un certain vide juridique.

Si on vient corriger

la situation avec la proposition, les articles de loi qu'on a présentement dans

le projet de loi n° 113, est-ce que, selon vous, ça viendrait éviter ce

genre de situation là, qui a été soulevée à la cour?

Le Président (M. Ouellette) : Who

will be the last to answer? So, Mr. president or Mme Grey? Mme Grey.

Mme Grey (Minnie) : Yes, I

believe that there can be clearer lines put in place, because the Youth Protection people will also be

able to use the application of Bill 113 as their new tool of collaboration with

the customary adoption, and it would

put less emphasis on the legal aspect of adoption, and the courts would have a

better understanding of how the Youth Protection has a role and how

Inuit customary adoption has a role.

Le Président (M.

Ouellette) : Thank you, Mme Grey. Merci, M. le président de la Société

Makivik, Régie régionale de la santé et des

services sociaux du Nunavik, M. Jobie Tukkiapik, M. Andy Pirti, Mme Mylène

Larivière, Mme Minnie Grey et Mme Elena Labranche.

Je nous rappelle

avant de conclure les auditions que je procède au dépôt des mémoires des

organismes qui n'ont pas été entendus lors

des auditions publiques, parce que nous terminons nos auditions publiques

aujourd'hui, j'ai nommé : M.

Jean-Pierre Arcoragi, la Commission d'accès à l'information, le Conseil du

statut de la femme et le Protecteur du

citoyen. Cet après-midi, nous devions recevoir le comité des orphelins de

Duplessis, qui s'est finalement désisté mais qui nous enverra un mémoire, aux membres de la commission, dans les prochains

jours. Donc, 17 mémoires reçus, 15 organismes qui ont été entendus.

Merci à tous les

membres, y compris M. le député d'Ungava, qui y a un intérêt particulier, et M.

le ministre des Affaires autochtones, qui est venu nous voir aujourd'hui, pour

votre contribution à nos travaux.

La commission, ayant

accompli son mandat, ajourne ses travaux sine die.

(Fin de la séance à 15 h 58)