The Quebec Superior Court has authorized a class-action lawsuit on behalf of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children who suffered abuse at the hands of Quebec’s youth protection services since 1950. www.aptnnews.ca/national-new...

This person was fortunate to learn what most adoptees never do: across Canada, many incarcerated mothers’ babies were adopted, yet knowledge of remain hidden behind youth privacy laws. Royal British Columbia Museum, BC Archives (Re), 2021 BCIPC 38 (CanLII), canlii.ca/t/jhrt7 @moonlyfe.bsky.social

Inmates helped generate $97 million last year for the Correctional Service of Canada’s employment branch known as CORCAN. But inmates earn no more than $6.90 a day. Fields of Confinement - Watch: youtu.be/fgdPG4M9bp8?...

🥚For all those adoptees punished in utero, whose carceral birth histories were hidden as they suffered innumerable harms and whose lives were cut short — may their truths be unearthed, their stories honored, and the silence end for those still unaware of their carceral beginnings.

In Ont., Mercer Reformatory records were denied under the YCJA—but teens 16–17 weren’t considered “youth offenders” then. We appealed—and won. Orders PO-4749, PO-4750 & PO-4751 force a new access decision. 1/2 #FOI #SecretCanada #HiddenHistory

This article aims to untangle the complex relationship between government, economics, related policy and politics and the criminalization of Indigenous people in Canada. www.tamarackcommunity.ca/articles/res...

4 girls — including my mother — escaped Mercer’s OTS wing but were caught and locked in the dungeon, where another desperate escape was attempted. It’s time to end these brutal, inhumane isolation conditions that disproportionately affect Indigenous, Black, and disabled people. #S205 #EndSeg

Some of the records coming in from Mercer indicate that the Children of Unmarried Parents Act (CUPA) was applied to Mercer babies. Could CUPA help us understand how many were born to incarcerated mothers? We’re working on it!

🥚Adoptees of Bluesky: Horrendous case of Ashley Smith! 👇For those who don’t know, she was an adoptee too.

What would Canada uncover if it examined carceral births—children born to incarcerated mothers, especially those labeled “juvenile delinquents”? These histories are still sealed under youth protection laws, leaving adoptees unaware of their institutional origins.

𝐕𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐌𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐫: Incarcerated women, their descendants & a Mercer Baby. A firsthand account + intergenerational voices from the Andrew Mercer Reformatory. Excerpt: “Your work dress consisted of patches upon patches...” – Audrey D., Rebirth & Change andrewmercerreformatory.org/reading-mate...

𝐕𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐌𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐫: Incarcerated women, their descendants & a Mercer Baby. A firsthand account + intergenerational voices from the Andrew Mercer Reformatory. Excerpt: “Your work dress consisted of patches upon patches...” – Audrey D., Rebirth & Change andrewmercerreformatory.org/reading-mate...

🥚Adoptee born of a mother at a Salvation Army home? They ran a wide network of maternity and receiving homes, often with the courts, to house girls labeled “delinquent” or mothers on remand or released from jails or reformatories. YCJA prevents disclosure. #HiddenHistories

🥚Note to adoptees: Youth protection laws will prevent you from learning your mother’s circumstances—whether she was criminalized or not. As one account explains, "girls found wandering the city streets are picked up by police and convicted of vagrancy even though they committed no criminal offence.”

🥚Thousands of Canadian adoptees with carceral birth origins remain unaware — their stories sealed by the Youth Criminal Justice Act and rendered invisible within adoption disclosure practices.

In 1905 in Ontario, a little girl was placed out for the first time. J.J. Kelso’s vision was to rescue children from unworthy families and give them “safe homes.” But that vision fell short — she was shuffled through home after home, only breaking free by marrying.

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒕 — A 1957 film unseen for nearly 70 years, now public (2025). Found via Library & Archives Canada, we requested a digital copy from the NFB & had it made public It follows a woman released from Mercer connecting with the new Elizabeth Fry Society andrewmercerreformatory.org/reading-mate...

🧵The Andrew Mercer Reformatory was one of many carceral institutions in Ontario that imprisoned over 20,000 women and girls. To read the text beneath the photos on the heritage plaque, please visit: andrewmercerreformatory.org/heritage-pla... 1/2

🥚All these countries—including Canada—need to investigate what happened to the children of criminalized and incarcerated women and girls, particularly in cases of adoption concealed under youth privacy laws that prevent disclosing whether the mother was criminalized as a "juvenile delinquent."

An abused Italian woman was jailed, her child “placed out” by CAS — learn more about her fight to regain custody of her child. 👉 Re D’Andrea, 1916 CanLII 479 (ON SC) A story reflecting injustices faced by thousands of criminalized & incarcerated women & girls www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAeF...

1/3 We’ve seen Children’s Aid Society (CAS) and Mercer records of a mom jailed in 1911 with five kids—all “placed out.” One son, indentured, was denied his earnings by Fort William CAS when he turned 18 in 1922. He hired a lawyer. How much did CAS steal from those who had no power?

🧵1/3 A Mercer descendant exploring femininity, class, morality, and resistance. This fabric will be joined with printed newspaper clippings from the June 1948 Mercer prison riot — the second month my 17-year-old grandma arrived there. 🎥 Watch the reel:

Mercer descendant, playing with ideas of femininity, class, morality, and resistance States: this fabric will be joined with printed newspaper clippings from the June 1948 Mercer prison riot — the second month my 17-year-old grandma arrived there 🎥 Watch the reel: www.facebook.com/reel/1428738...

Monica's Story: The Hidden Lives of Kids with Imprisoned Moms and Dads www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7N_...

For adoptees, the YCJA continues to conceal knowledge and block access to records of forced adoptions of mothers criminalized as “juvenile delinquents” in maternity homes, Good Shepherds, the Mercer, asylums, and other carceral sites across Canada. www.justice.gc.ca/socjs-esjp/e...

1/4: Obscured behind adoptees’ records and adoption stats are likely many girls labeled as "delinquents" or wards of the CAS — committed to Ontario Training Schools (OTS) or placed on probation until age 21 (later reduced to 18). The image below shows the scale of girls under OTS wardship only.

Wards of the CAS were almost never named in the press — but 13-year-old Lillie was. Little is known about her, but we do know she arrived at the Industrial Refuge in the west wing of the Mercer Reformatory. Her charge? “Immoral conduct.” Like so many others, Lillie’s voice was lost in the records.

According to Ont Agricultural College, in 1934 L. Payne, a grad, published a book: Bread and Water Diets of Prisoners Found Inadequate. In 1947, K. Sandford documented punishment in the dungeon and the bread-and-water diet at Mercer. This raises the question: when was this punitive practice ended?

1/2 🧵 Several access requests for Mercer records were denied under the YCJA. In this case (age 17, 1931), she was sentenced as an adult—yet the records are now denied as if she were a youth? Really? We sought help. 👇 #Hiddencarceralbirths @debdundas.bsky.social @kpateonthehill.bsky.social

1/3 #AdoptionStories #CarceralBirths A 1948 report from the Ontario Training School (OTS) for Girls reveals that 7 pregnant girls were transferred to other carceral institutions — including MATERNITY HOMES — upon admission. @debdundas.bsky.social @kpateonthehill.bsky.social

1/8 There’s a clear pipeline of control linking childhood labels, eugenics-based schooling, training schools, and finally incarceration at Mercer. This thread unpacks that system. 🧵

🥚Adoptee suffering has long been ignored. Professionals are only now sharing troubling stats. But one question remains unanswered for prison-born adoptees: What’s the impact of prenatal exposure to a mother’s incarceration on child development? —Punished in Utero 🔗 www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wCf...

On this day, Aug 28, 1880: The first two women were incarcerated at Mercer. Over the next 80 years, more than 20,000 women and girls—many of them pregnant—were held there before it closed in 1969. 🧵 (1/2)

A 13-year-old girl, labelled a 'prostitute.' In the 1950s, she would have been incarcerated in the west wing of Mercer, designated as the Ontario Training School for Girls Toronto. Many of the girls were pregnant.

The Ontario Female Refuges Act allowed officials to send women aged 15 to 35—who were unwed and pregnant or deemed to be troublemakers—to reformatories, where they were held against their will and subjected to questionable medical experimentation. #incorrigible www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSGG...

1/ “In 1903 Arthur Griffiths lamented that to be born in prison carried with it an ‘inalienable heritage of woe.’” That phrase stopped me cold. 🧵 A thread on carceral birth, adoption, and uncovering hidden legacies:

"Can you imagine being arrested and jailed because your boyfriend is Chinese? Most of us would never believe that was possible, but it did happen in Toronto, Ontario, Canada." Many women and girls were imprisoned at Mercer, as Velma was. #Incorrigible www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf_9...

Professor Nahum Mushin AM, former Family Court Judge, on adoption. While inquiries into adoption have taken place worldwide or are ongoing, NO ONE in Canada has investigated the #forcedadoption of children of criminalized & incarcerated mothers. #ShameOnCA www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHUW...

At 1155 King Street West, now home to Lamport Stadium, once stood the Mercer Reformatory, a grim institution founded in 1880 to “reform” so-called “wretched” women. www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCbA...

Today marks the 50th Prisoners’ Justice Day. We remember those who have died while in custody and honour the ongoing struggle to decolonize, decriminalize and decarcerate, while walking and working in alliance with those inside and outside prison walls. 1/3

This Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of Prisoners’ Justice Day, a day to honour those who have lived and died in prisons across Canada and to reaffirm our commitment to ending systemic neglect, discrimination, and rights violations in our correctional system. Read more in my statement below. 📄

𝐋𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐓𝐨𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐨 holds a brutal history of confinement. Institutions here and surrounding area imprisoned people from across Ontario—criminalized women and men, those labeled ‘insane,’ and youth. 1/3 #CarceralHistory #TorontoHistory

The YCJA protects the identities of young offenders—including those who were pregnant teens. For some adoptees, this means their carceral birth history remains hidden behind current restrictive disclosure regimes and past practices of concealment. #Adoption 🥚

In Ontario these children remained wards of the school or the Children’s Aid Society until age 21, which was reduced to 18 in 1948. Any slight misbehavior after age 16 could result in incarceration at Mercer.

Georgina Brooks, a Black woman incarcerated at Mercer, was a victim of systemic racism and institutional neglect. She couldn’t save herself—and like many others, she died behind the walls of the Mercer Reformatory. 1/2

A must read: “Sex Cells: Women’s Paths to Institutionalization in the Hospital for the Insane, Cobourg, 1902-1935” Found here: andrewmercerreformatory.org/reading-mate... A sobering reminder: old gendered and moral laws are gone, but control persists in subtler, bureaucratic forms today.

"...women who were often not welcome in the maternity homes...— racialized women and White women who had relationships with non-White men. In Ontario in the early 20th century...women...were labelled as incorrigible and jailed at the Mercer Reformatory in Toronto." Layers & layers of oppression.

This research highlights the need to recognize the hidden carceral birth histories of adoptees born to imprisoned mothers. Punished in utero, early separation and adoption can cause lasting mental health effects, making trauma-informed care vital for prison-born—and all—adoptees. 🥚

🥚 12 Things People Always Ask Me About Adoption drbarbarasumner.substack.com/p/12-things-...

You have the right to request records from governmental institutions, but how do you know what records they have to begin with? Checking their Directory of Records is usually a good place to start. Learn more on our website: ow.ly/Bu6M50W2xzT