Agency probing adoption flub involving same-sex couple

Child and Family Services is investigating how a Winnipeg couple were led to believe they could adopt a baby then had it taken away.

The same-sex couple, who had been caring for the baby as a foster child for the past three months, were forced to give her up on Friday after government officials determined another couple should become the adoptive parents.

The couple said they took the newborn in on the condition they would be able to eventually adopt her. But that information, provided to them by two different CFS workers, turned out to be wrong and the baby went to a couple higher on the waiting list.

The couple's names cannot be published because they have two other foster children in their care.

'It's quite concerning that the foster parents were under the impression that they could do something that really wasn't based in the legislation.' —Jay Rodgers, Central Child and Family Services Authority

Jay Rodgers, CEO of the Central Child and Family Services Authority, said the couple had the wrong information when they took in the child.

"It's quite concerning that the foster parents were under the impression that they could do something that really wasn't based in the legislation. And so I really need to take a look at how that transpired and how that came about," Rodgers said.

"That's what I want to focus the investigation on — what was the communication that went back and forth when this baby was initially put there." .

The investigation will also look at how the agency handled the couple's other two foster children, ages 9 and 13, who were taken away without any notice, apparently to give the couple time to grieve, he said.

The couple said they were told the elder girls would be taken from them just for the weekend. But now they have been told they have to undergo psychological testing before the other two girls come back.

The women told CBC News they are taking their case to the provincial Human Rights Commission because they believe their same-sex relationship was a factor in what has happened.