An adopted person made a request to the Children’s Aid Society of the District of Thunder Bay under Part X of the Child, Youth and Family Services Act, 2017 for access to information from her adoption file, including a copy of her birth registration. The society provided partial access to information from the requester’s adoption file, disclosing all information except for identifying information of individuals other than the requester. The society did not locate a birth registration in its records, and the requester was not satisfied with its search efforts.
In this decision, the adjudicator finds that the adoption file is excluded from the scope of the Act because of section 285(4)(a), which excludes information that relates to an adoption. As a result, Part X of the Act does not apply to the withheld information, and she does not have a right of access to it under the Part X of the Act. The adjudicator also finds that because the adoption file is excluded from the Act, he cannot review the society’s search efforts.