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History General

A Legal History of Adoption in Ontario, 1921-2015

edited by Lori Chambers

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
Oct 2016
Category
General, Legal History, Gender Studies

  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781487501013
    Publish Date
    Oct 2016
    List Price
    $78.00

  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781487523305
    Publish Date
    May 2018
    List Price
    $37.95

  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781487512279
    Publish Date
    Sep 2016
    List Price
    $28.95

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Description

Lori Chamber's fascinating study explores the legal history of adoption in Ontario since the passage of the first statute in 1921. This volume explores a wide range of themes and issues in the history of adoption including: the reasons for the creation of statutory adoption, the increasing voice of unmarried fathers in newborn adoption, the reasons for movement away from secrecy in adoption, the evolution of step-parent adoption, the adoption of Indigenous children, and the growth of international adoption.

 

Unlike other works on adoption, this book focuses explicitly on statutes, statutory debates, and the interpretation of statutes in court. In doing so, she concludes that adoption is an inadequate response to child welfare and on its own cannot solve problems regarding child neglect and abuse. Rather, Chambers argues that in order to reform the area of adoption we must first acknowledge that it is built upon social inequalities within and between nations.

About the author

Lori Chambers teaches at McMaster University. She is the author of Married Women and Property Law in Western Ontario.

Lori Chambers' profile page

Editorial Reviews

"Chambers’s scholarship provides needed insights into the origins of adoption law, the dubious tactics of social workers…, the responsibilities of putative fathers, the sordid tale of child apprehension, the debate between closed and open adoptions, and the fight to be legally recognized as parents by step-parents, same-sex parents, and biological fathers."

University of Toronto Quarterly, vol 87 3, Summer 2018

‘This is a timely and through analysis that will be of interest to scholars of legal and family history.’

The Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth vol 11:01:2018

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A Reader, Second Edition

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Essays in the History of Canadian Law, Volume XII

New Essays in Women's History

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No Legal Way Out

R v Ryan, Domestic Abuse, and the Defence of Duress

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Human Trafficking in and through Canada

Legal and Policy Consideration

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Understanding Atrocities

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A Legal History of Adoption in Ontario. 1921-2015

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Is It Just?

A Classic Feminist Novel

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Misconceptions

Unmarried Motherhood and the Ontario Children of Unmarried Parents Act, 1921-1969

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Ontario Since Confederation

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