Prison Adoptee

‘Keeping Mum’: A Historical Examination of the Andrew Mercer Reformatory and its Contemporary Legacy Through a Framework of Motherhood qspace.library.queensu.ca/items/82ec5044…

Cody writes: “Protection for the red dress” "This piece is created for May 5th-red dress day The man who killed my grandma, was charged 200 dollars or two months in jail." (Released from Mercer just prior) Instagram: instagram.com/p/DFQqTzuS9qe/n Facebook: facebook.com/profile.php?id…

An introduction to the Adoptee Birthright Archive, with an attached curated selection of over 70 short and feature documentaries which offer a brief history of the impact of sealed records... Click here: youtube.com/watch?v=wTaV3-…

Yr ending Mar 1964: 559 females imprisoned at Mercer—293 single, 266 married. Though framed as addressing a “child in need of protection,” the Child Welfare Act disproportionately impacted single mothers, effectively treating sole caregiving as grounds for child removal.

I wrote about the arrogance of empire and the violence of making claims on other people’s children, for @thenation

Estimating the number and percentage of children who experience parental incarceration in Canada using whole population administrative and vital statistics data 2/2 journals.plos.org/plosone/articl…

A new study is shedding light on how many Canadian children experience parental incarceration, providing, for the first time, a credible estimate for a group that has been “statistically invisible” in policy and service planning. 1/2 healthsci.mcmaster.ca/thousands-of-c…

This week's #warriorlifepodcast Dr @cblackst @CaringSociety joined me to talk about an academic article she & I co-authored on clash b/w class actions & human rights. Also ethical issues about some class action lawyers. #cdnpoli #firstnations #classactions warriorlifepodcast.ca/cindy-blacksto…

This is an extraordinary story of an extreme power imbalance!! Good overview from two years ago: Kelly Donovan on Confronting Police Corruption Warrior Life Podcast with host Pam Palmater: youtube.com/watch?v=9FoLr0…

J. J. Kelso, Canada’s “child saver.” 130 yrs later, descendants still can’t access records—modern child welfare laws block it. Two descendants were denied CAS records from 1900 & 1905. Why are 100+ year-old records still sealed? thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/joh…

New book on Ireland’s Catholic-run institutions that imprisoned thousands of women and girls. In Canada, meanwhile, records are blocked by federal & provincial laws. It raises a haunting question: what happened to the babies born in our Magdalene asylums? theguardian.com/books/2026/apr…

Louise Brangan released a comprehensive account of Ireland’s Magdalene laundries on April 14, 2026, detailing the systematic incarceration and unpaid labor of thousands of women within Catholic-run institutions. #adoption #motherandbabyhomes #churchabuse theguardian.com/books/2026/apr…

Recognition and accountability are essential to restoring dignity and addressing the lasting harm caused by these harmful historical practices. 4/4

Why is Canada lagging behind in doing the same? These practices imposed—and continue to impose—a profound and enduring double burden of shame and trauma on young mothers forced to relinquish their children. 3/4

🧵Canada Must Confront the Legacy of Forced Adoptions of Babies Born to Unmarried Mothers in Maternity Homes 1/4

"...Justice Minister Jung Sung-ho said the country’s past adoptions amounted to “forced child trafficking” and that the government will largely refrain from appealing rulings in cases brought by victims seeking compensation for government wrongdoing." apnews.com/article/south-…

🧵Torture at the Ontario Training School for Girls: a 12-year-old brutally abused for 92 days—then incarcerated in the Mercer Reformatory. Two snippets from the Toronto Star. 👇1/2

Must-read on the class action at the “House of Horrors” in B.C. & the overrepresentation of Indigenous girls 👇 Note: in Ontario, “incorrigible” girls who escaped training schools were committed to the Mercer Reformatory. ctvnews.ca/vancouver/arti…

What the documentary doesn’t say: Ontario Training Schools girls were surveilled until 21, and many pregnant girls were sent to Mercer. Adoption records don’t identify their mothers as ‘juvenile delinquents,’ keeping these carceral birth origins hidden. gem.cbc.ca/cbc-docs-pov/s…

I, L. Mayhew, and two other descendants of women and girls incarcerated at the Andrew Mercer Reformatory were interviewed for "Keeping Mum", a study on its historical and contemporary legacy and identification of gaps in the current literature. Read: queensu.scholaris.ca/items/82ec5044…