Adoptive families deserve equal parental leave as biological families, says adoptive parent

Things weren't easy when Yannick Munger and his wife first adopted their two children.

For months, he couldn't get close to his son without inadvertently frightening him. After at least three different foster families in his native South Korea, he had developed issues around trust — and would grab hold of Munger's wife whenever he could.

"He was sleeping on her chest, and it was very very exhausting for my wife. And I was unable to touch him at all," Munger told CBC's Daybreak. 

"I was trying to create a bond. So I spent a lot of time with him to create that relationship."

His daughter was in many ways the opposite: she came from an orphanage in China, and had survived by smiling and hugging everyone she could — and didn't understand that her parents were different than strangers on the street.

"We needed time to to get along, to bond together," he said.

"A lot of these children have been abandoned."

That's why he says he was disappointed when he heard the Quebec government was walking back its commitment to increase parental leave for adoptive parents.

'Important time' for a new family

Munger, who also acts as treasurer for the Fédération des parents adoptants du Québec (FPAQ), said he was "shocked" when the government announced the changes, because they had been promised otherwise.

During the 2018 provincial election, the Coalition Avenir Québec campaign wrote to the FPAQ, saying that they would increase the parental leave for adoptive parents and bring it in line with the leave for biological parents.

Bill 51, which was tabled Thursday, gives each adoptive parent five weeks of exclusive benefits, and another five weeks if the child is adopted from outside of Quebec.

But that still doesn't bring it in line with how much biological parents get.

Adoptive families need more time because of the sensitive nature of the adoption process, Munger argued.

"Every single international expert in adoption, they will tell us that we need more than a year, because the situation is difficult," he said.

"Adopted children are the only ones in Quebec that are not allowed to spend an entire year with their parents, and they are fragile."

'Not the same,' says labour minister

Speaking to the press Thursday, Labour Minister Jean Boulet said biological mothers needed more time, due to the stress that giving birth has on the body.

"It's not the same consequences when you give birth, you have to go through a pregnancy period which is more difficult to deal with," Boulet said. "When you adopt you don't have to manage with the same consequences."

Munger said while he's sympathetic to the physical strain of having a biological child, he said that's no excuse for why adopting parents shouldn't get the same time.

"We totally disagree with the fact that he thinks that if he gives us more time, it will be discriminating against a mother [who just gave] birth," he said.

He also said that giving adoptive families more time doesn't mean it needs to be taken away from biological families.

Munger said he's hoping to keep pressure on the Quebec government through the new year, as they assess Bill 51 in the National Assembly.