Institutions — 29 November 2016 (41st Legislature, 1st Session)

CI 2016-11-29

Quebec — Committees

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 distingu

Document details

Collection	Quebec — Committees
Citation	CI 2016-11-29
Type	committee
Volume / chapter	en travaux parlementaires commissions ci 41 1 journal debats CI 161129.html
Language	en
Format	html
Source	PROVINCIAL
Identifier	8bc349d83e938b93a2cf22834a5959d75f51eef6

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