Quebec sent Ottawa hospital hundreds of birth alerts despite Ontario ban – CBC
Hospital received 298 birth alerts since October 2020, when Ontario ended them
May 15, 2023
Despite the fact that Ontario put a stop to birth alerts in 2020, Quebec child welfare agencies continued to send hundreds of the controversial notifications — which can be used to threaten to or actually seize newborns from their mothers — to Ottawa’s largest hospital.
According to internal hospital data obtained by CBC News, The Ottawa Hospital received 298 birth alerts from October 2020 onward. That was when the province ended the practice, saying the alerts disproportionately affect Indigenous and other racialized mothers.
All the alerts issued after 2020 came from Quebec and “were not acted upon,” the hospital said.
But Cora McGuire-Cyrette, CEO of the Ontario Native Women’s Association, said it’s “disheartening to see these numbers.”
And an Ottawa doula told CBC that clients told her they’d experienced birth alerts at the hospital as recently as this year.
