Year 2021
Jan. 26, 2021 We revived an email response from the BC Ombudsperson intake worker mentioning the the Ombudsperson will not stand in solidarity with the rights, safety, dignity, safety and health of surrogate women in BC and Canada.
Jan. 16, 2021 We sent an email to all Canadian Premiers for the purpose of education and advocacy as well as to take a stand for the equality, dignity, safety, and health of surrogate women.
Jan. 02, 2021 An email was sent to Fertility Law BC, a group of fertility lawyers to explain the concerns with exploitation, and discrimination held within surrogacy. We asked that they take a stand with us.
Jan. 07, 2021 We received response from the AHRA letting us know that they are not interested in our concerns of exploitation of surrogate women, or suggestions on a research project that could better help improve the regulations of safety, health, dignity and equality of surrogate women. They also informed us that the the use of being pitched continued contact in order to induce trust of a surrogate woman before signing consent is not their problem. We cc'd our response to the AHRA, to politicians, several organizations and individuals. To view our response please visit our International Surrogacy page on our website www.fmssf.net . This same day we heard back from the office of Jenny Kwan MP, who will forward our email to Jenny and suggested that we stay in contact with our local representatives. We have further asked for Jenny to state her opinion on our concerns and respond to our earlier email in October of 2020, of whether she will take a stand with us.
Year 2020
Oct. 11th 2020, after a few months of perseverance, we finally were able to establish ourselves as an online presence. The following entries will be a continuous work in progress for logging and documentation of the steps being taken in the direction of legal changes in Canada for surrogate women.
Oct. 12th, 2020: A formal letter introducing who we are and what we do at FMSSF was sent to 13 officials, including the Prime Minister, MP's, local politicians, cabinet ministers.
Oct. 13th, 2020: We receive response from the Office of the Hon. Maryam Monsef, MP, who is forwarding our letter to the Office of the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Rural Economic Development for review. Recent contact was made with a journalist who takes interest in reproductive laws, technology, surrogacy matters and policy debates in Canada. Recent consultation steps were made to learn more on development of a documentary for featuring policy changes in Canada.
Oct. 14, 2020: A formal letter introducing who we are and what we do at FMSSF, advocating for policy change was sent to 13 more officials, including Senators, and MP's.
Oct. 17, 2020: We received our first private donation from a very kind-hearted person. Proceeds will be forwarded towards helping our clients. Thank you!
Oct. 20, 2020: An email letter was sent as first contact to the Canadian Women's Foundation, and the office of Commission of Human Rights. FMSSF is currently taking steps towards our plans of applying for registration as a charity.
Oct. 21, 2020: We received response from the Office of Prime Minister Trudeau that our letter on behalf of FMSSF was received, carefully reviewed and forwarded to the Honourable Patricia A. Hajdu, Minister of Health, for her information and consideration.
Oct. 25, 2020: We sent a follow up letter to The Honourable Maryam Monsef, Minister Of Women and Gender Equality.
Oct. 26, 2020: A letter was sent including outreach program flyers to the BC Women and Children's Hospital and St. Paul's Hospital Maternity.
Oct. 27, 2020: A letter was sent to the BC Minister of Mental Health
Oct. 28, 2020: A letter was sent to the BC Attorney General
Oct. 29, 2020: Vancouver Island Health has agreed to forward our flyers for educating the health care providers of surrogacy abuse and making available our client outreach services for any surrogate birth mothers in need.
A formal letter was sent on behalf of FMSSF to the Minister of Labour explaining the discriminatory and exploitive practices within the surrogacy industry.
Nov. 6, 2020 The Department of Women and Gender Equality responded to FMSSF letting us know that their office has determined that exploitation of surrogate women is not a women’s equality concern of the department‘s focus and that they transferred our email to the Minister of Health.
Nov. 23, 2020. We received helpful correspondence from the Justice Services Branch, Ministry of Attorney General.
Nov. 26, 2020 We received correspondence from the Office of Prime Minister of Canada. The following is their response: ".. I would like to acknowledge receipt of your correspondence addressed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau regarding surrogacy. Please be assured that your comments, offered on behalf of the First Mothers Surrogacy Support Foundation, have been carefully reviewed. I have taken the liberty of forwarding your email to the Honourable Patricia A. Hajdu, Minister of Health, who, I am certain, will appreciate being made aware of your continuing interest in this issue. Thank you for taking the time to write. M. Bredeson Executive Correspondence Officer for the Prime Minister's Office Agent de correspondance de la haute direction pour le Cabinet du Premier ministre."
Nov. 28, 2020 We began reaching out to all income earner groups associated with the surrogacy industry in Canada. We recognize that in doing so these groups will potentially not have any interest in what we do as it contrasts with how they earn their fees and who pays them during their participation within a surrogacy event. Our email is to educate on the realities of potential harm, due to lack of regulations that protect the health and well-being of surrogate women who can potentially be taken advantage of for their altruism. We suggested that they may take a stand with us as advocates of surrogate birth mothers, and gave them the information that we rely on donations that can help assist our outreach program to help women who were harmed and are also struggling with financial destitution directly related to being a surrogate for others.
Dec. 5, 2020 An email was sent to the contact for Review of Parentage Family Law Act of BC, to provide information about our NFPO and what we do and to request for surrogate concerns to be included in their current review process. We sent an email to the AHRA, with suggestions for review and follow up requirements, and to advocate for research into the numbers of women who were induced into surrogacy under false pretence of continued contact and experienced cut contact after legal paper work for transfer of parentage was completed.
Dec. 11, 2020 We heard response from the INMHA, affiliation to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. According to the respondent, there seems to have been no research within Canada on the impact on mental health of surrogate women who felt exploited by the process or who had agreed to surrogate under conditions of having some form of continued contact and then later experience contact cut after the birth.
Dec. 19, 2020 An email was sent to the Minister of Women and Gender Equality, asking for their office to reconsider that exploitation and abuse of surrogate women is an issue that must also be included in their focus.
Dec. 22, 2020 We received correspondence from the Minister of Justice's office who wrote that they are forwarding our concerns to the Minister of Health.
Dec. 29, 2020 We emailed the Canadian Minister of Labour Honourable Filomena Tassi, with our concerns over exploitation of surrogate women through laws that are structure through a profit from altruism model. We asked her if she she agrees that the term altruism is being used to disguise and mislead for the purpose of labour exploitation.