Families of Imagine Adoption vote to work with bankruptcy trustee to save agency

Canadian Press

KITCHENER, Ont. — Families whose dreams of adopting children from Ethiopia and other countries were left in limbo with the bankruptcy of a Cambridge, Ont.-based adoption agency have voted to work to rescue the agency from bankruptcy.

The families attended the first creditors' meeting held in Kitchener, Ont., today and say they voted to work with the bankruptcy trustee BDO Dunwoody to present a proposal to rescue Kids Link International Adoption Agency - which operated as Imagine Adoption - from bankruptcy.

They say work on the proposal should be completed within the next two to four weeks.

Families of Imagine Adoption say if the court accepts their proposal, the restructured agency will continue to work to complete the adoptions of families which had registered with the agency before it went bankrupt on July 14.

About 400 families across Canada have paid thousands of dollars to adopt children from Ethiopia, Ecuador, Zambia and Ghana.

"What a moving moment it was to see all 189 people present vote in favour of working towards taking the agency out of bankruptcy," said Christine Starr, chair of Families of Imagine Adoption.

"But this is just a first step towards the completion of all files. There is much more work to be done," she said in a statement.

Representatives of the Ontario families had met Tuesday with Ontario Children and Youth Services Minister Deb Matthews to plead their case.

Matthews said Tuesday her ministry was taking clear action to help the families.

Among the steps, she said the ministry would quickly consider licensing requests if a reconstituted agency emerged from bankruptcy.

She also said the ministry had not pulled Imagine Adoption's licence, to facilitate adoptions.