Sault Ste. Marie city council voted tonight to investigate the possibility of establishing a secure drop-off location where babies may be anonymously surrendered.
At the request of Ward 3 Coun. Angela Caputo and her Ward 2 counterpart Lisa Vezeau-Allen, council agreed to look into setting up a temperature-controlled Hope's Cradle bassinet box, most likely at a local fire station.
Established by Calgary-based domestic abuse survivors charity Gems for Gems, Hope's Cradle offers mothers and caregivers a judgment-free process for legally surrendering infants to children’s service professionals.
The program's first two baby boxes were built into exterior walls in fire stations in Strathmore, Alberta, and Taché, Manitoba.
Another is expected to open this fall in Clarington in Ontario's Durham region.
Coun. Caputo talked at tonight's city council meeting about her adopted infant daughter, Leo.
Coun. Vezeau-Allen talked about being herself adopted.
The vote was unanimous, except for Ward 5 Coun. Corey Gardi, who didn't attend the meeting.
"As many of you know, my daughter Leo entered into my life via adoption," Coun. Caputo said.
"So I'm familiar with the adoption process. And while I am grateful for it, I want everyone to understand that it is not easy."
"It is not a simple process. And it is one that a lot of folks who might be suffering with mental health and addiction or have past traumas would really struggle to complete," Caputo said.
"So I have a little shout out to Leo's birth mother. Without her I don't know where I would be. She searched for me. When she found me, she knew that she and that little unborn little girl had found the person that they were looking for."
"She fought to get through this adoption process. Not everyone would. Some don't have access to a phone for the many scheduled calls. Some would simply break, through the many mandated therapy sessions delving into their past traumas.
"And frankly, some would face violence or persecution, if anyone even found out they were pregnant. I will never pretend to understand the pain on a birth mother's heart when having to make a decision not to parent a child."
"Tonight, we have the option to potentially save lives for a very small cost. And given the crisis that we are facing as a community with mental health and addictions, I beg you to vote yes on this," Caputo said.
"I myself have an adoption story. I was adopted," said Coun. Vezeau-Allen.
"I was born in 1967. I was in Sudbury, Ontario and I was very much part of that closed adoption process. In my adoption papers it actually lied and said my dad was a law student. He was a bartender," Vezeau-Allen said.
"I also want to be very clear that I'm very pro choice. I believe in a woman's right to choose and this comes from a very lived experience: a very heartfelt experience."
Installing a Hope's Cradle baby box costs about $20,000.
"I think it's really just about understanding how a woman might feel when she's faced with this decision and how she may not have cultural supports, financial support, the ability to make a decision
"I'm extremely fortunate to have met my birth mother at the age of 34. I cannot even understand at the age of 21 how she felt and I later found out later in life, that my aunt – her sister – actually wanted to adopt me but they wouldn't allow that because she was a single woman, even though she was a nurse and quite willing to take care of me
"So change needs to happen. People need to be open about these things," Vezeau-Allen told the meeting. "I hope all of my colleagues on council will support this. It's about keeping our community safe and giving people choice. It started for a reason."
Ward 1 Coun. Sonny Spina said: "This is going to be an extremely important report coming back from staff."
"In the last couple of days, I had some important conversations with some folks who work in the child protection area in our community.... I want to just encourage staff... to have those conversations and include as many people as possible with Indigenous job services, local child services, appropriate government officials. Because from what I'm told there's rapidly changing laws, procedures that are going on with adoptions right now.
"I think it's important for us to have all of that picture looking forward and I really believe this is going to be a very important report.
"We have to get it right the first time. I'm thankful that this has come forward and I'm thankful that we have the opportunity to have this discussion. I just want to make sure we get it right and include as many people as possible to get that right," Spina said.