When Ingrid Phaneuf applied to adopt a baby girl from Ethiopia, she went through a lengthy and intrusive government assessment, including a financial review and an Interpol check.
With the former operators of the Cambridge adoption agency she hired now charged with fraud and breach of trust, Phaneuf wonders why those selling adoption services in Ontario aren’t subjected to the same kind of rigorous examination.
She and her husband Edward Barth paid $15,000 to the Imagine Adoption agency, but the business filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009 before their adoption was completed.
The couple behind the agency, Susan and Rick Hayhow, were charged by Waterloo Regional Police and the RCMP on Friday with multiple counts of fraud and breach of trust for allegedly squandering adoption fees on home renovations, cosmetic dentistry and trips to New York.
