Summer Seminars: The Secret History of Adoption & Child Placement in Quebec

This summer, the Paul-André Crépeau Centre for Private and Comparative Law is presenting a series of Summer Seminars in which the whole McGill Law community is invited to take part. The main purpose of this seminar series is to offer a forum to younger scholars to present their ideas and to engage with those of others in an informal setting.

Cookies and cold drinks will be served.

Speaker: Edmund Coates, researcher, Crépeau Centre.

Abstract: Until the second half of the twentieth century, child adoption and placement in Quebec received limited governmental support, either in terms of resources or legislation. Private actors largely took the initiative. Thus, what is now a highly formalised and heavily regulated realm was not all that long ago largely informal and subject to minimal state regulation. Exploration of the surviving documents and archives provides a fresh perspective on the concrete history of these institutions and on the proposed changes in this area, including the opening of adoption files.