Ottawa urges prospective parents to be patient over adoptions

Ottawa urges prospective parents to be patient over adoptions

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GLORIA GALLOWAY AND DANIEL LEBLANC

OTTAWA — From Saturday's Globe and Mail

Published on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2010 12:00AM EST

Last updated on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2010 3:15AM EST

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said authorizations have been secured to start flying 154 Haitian children to Canada for adoption, although he urged parents to be patient.

"This is obviously a situation that is very fluid. To be perfectly honest, we probably won't know with absolute certainty the full list of children that will be on the first flight until it takes off from Haiti," he said yesterday.

"We understand the anxiety of parents; we just assured them that we are doing everything we can to protect the best interests of their soon-to-be adopted children."

Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon, who will host an emergency meeting of an informal group called the Friends of Haiti on Monday in Montreal, held a teleconference yesterday with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"We agreed to better co-ordinate aid in the short term so it gets to those in need as quickly as possible," Mr. Cannon told reporters.

In the medium term, he said, there will be planning for future reconstruction.

"And ultimately beyond that," said Mr. Cannon, the participants will ask "what are the principles and the guidelines that we need to put in place to be able to launch this process so that we will have a successful reconstruction process?"

U.S. President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Stephen Harper discussed the Haiti aide effort in a telephone call yesterday, agreeing to work closely together, both in the immediate disaster relief phase and over the long term.

Mr. Harper congratulated his Conservative MPs for the job they have done to bring some aid to the humanitarian crisis in Haiti.

"I commend all Canadians - and all of you in this room - for your overwhelming response to this disaster," Mr. Harper said at the opening of a caucus meeting. "We will continue to do our utmost to aid our Haitian neighbours and to help them to find their way to hope."

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