Ontario’s History of Tampering and Re-Tampering with Birth Registration Forms

Abstract

This article is intended to open a discussion of the matter of Ontario administrators, hospital and government employees, history of interfering with and tampering long form birth certificates in situations where birth mothers were unmarried or separated.  Relying on Indigenous methods of knowing such as personal stories, introspection, and listening to experts, the author moves on to explore how the practice of tampering with birth documents places Indigenous mothers and children in a double jeopardy of not only being denied the valued information of who their biological father is, but also being denied Indian status registration.  Mothers and their children are deserving of more.  This article ends with suggesting further research.