COAR Appeal

October 4, 2007 permalink

COAR has received enough positive response to its last message to seriously explore the possibility of an appeal. They now have a fund appeal. For those of our readers who have not been driven to penury by family courts this is a chance to act.

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A Bulletin from the Coalition for Open Adoption Records

October 4, 2007

PLEASE DO NOT CLICK "REPLY" TO THIS EMAIL. Write to wrowney@rogers.com.

Dear Friends,

Decision to Appeal with the Government

We have read your responses to our last bulletin asking you how we should proceed. It is clear that the adoption community is angry and upset over the judge's decision to shut down the Adoption Information Disclosure Act (AIDA).

Most people want us to intervene if the next Government of Ontario appeals the judge's decision to the Supreme Court of Ontario. We agree. People want our community to be represented by our community. We must demonstrate to the judge, the government, and the wider community that the adoption community cares about the outcome of this hearing.

Pledges Required

To do this, we again have to ask for pledges to pay our legal costs. We need to approach our lawyer in the next week so please send your pledge in the next few days. During the last pledge drive most people donated between $50 and $500 and we raised almost $14 000. We hope that you will be as generous today.

When we accumulate enough pledges we will go back to our lawyers and ask them if they and their firm will continue to represent us. Please pledge an amount, and we will contact you later after we are certain that our lawyers can go ahead.

Send your pledge to: Wendy Rowney at wrowney@rogers.com. Please include this information:

    I ___________________ pledge $ ____________ to The
     (first and last name)	     (amount)
    Coalition for Open Adoption Records to
    defend the Adoption Information Disclosure Act in
    the Supreme Court of Ontario.

    Address _____________________________________________
	   (apartment, street number, street, city/town,
	    province/state, country, postal/zip code.)

    Phone number including area code: ___________________

    Email address: ______________________
    

Again, the Election on October 10th. If you vote in Ontario, support the candidate in your riding who will promise to support an appeal of the judge's decision. See COAR's survey of candidates in the election: 2007ontarioadoptionrecordspoll.blogspot.com. To find out your candidates, go to Elections Ontario: www.elections.on.ca/en-ca.

We are quite certain that a Conservative government will not appeal.

In solidarity,

Michael Grand grand@psy.uoguelph.ca
Karen Lynn ccnm@rogers.com
Wendy Rowney wrowney@rogers.com
COAR Coordinating Committee

Source: email from COAR

Addendum: October 19, 2007. COAR reports that the deadline has been extended at the request of the Ontario government, indicating in interest in pursuing an appeal.

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Fri, 19 Oct 2007 15:05:41 -0700 (PDT)

COAR Bulletin

Extension Granted

We learned this morning that the Ontario government has applied for and been granted an extension to appeal Judge Belobaba's decision that struck down the Adoption Information Disclosure Act on September 19th. They now have until November 15, 2007 to decide whether they plan to appeal the judge’s decision.

Today was the original deadline. They requested more time because it was difficult to make a decision while the politicians were campaigning before the election.

By applying for the extension, the government is not saying that they plan to appeal but that they have not yet had sufficient time to study the case. However, it does indicate that they plan to consider their options carefully and not dismiss the case out of hand. We are cautiously optimistic.

What You Can Do

We urge you to write both the Attorney General and Ministry of Community and Social Services and let them know why you want the government to appeal. You can contact the Attorney General, Michael Bryant, at mbryant.mpp@liberal.ola.org and the Minister of MCSS, Madeleine Meilleur, at mmeilleur.mpp@liberal.ola.org. Feel free to share with them your disappointment with Judge Belobaba’s decision and tell them why you hope they will decide to appeal the decision. Your e-mail need not be long.

We will keep you informed as we learn more.

In solidarity,

Michael Grand, mgrand@uoguelph.ca
Karen Lynn, ccnm@rogers.com
Wendy Rowney, wrowney@roges.com

Source: email from COAR