China ended its international adoption program. Prospective parents want Canada to intervene

A Quebec man and his wife are devastated after China suddenly stopped most international adoptions, dashing their hopes of adopting a little boy they've spent years getting to know.

«We feel that we have a special connection with him,» said Pierre LeMay from Quebec City.

«We receive pictures, we receive videos … We were seeing him growing and learning things and doing stuff a little boy would do,» he told Matt Galloway.

Lemay and his wife, Nathalie Bissonnette, married in 2015 and are now in their late 40s. They started the adoption process several years ago and were matched with a four-year-old boy in early 2020. But the pandemic stalled their application and the boy, who has special needs and a heart defect, is now eight years old.

Lemay said they were at the second-last step of their application process, awaiting authorization to travel to China and bring the boy back to Canada.

But on Sept. 5, China announced the international adoption program was ending immediately, to bring the policy «in line» with international trends. Only blood relatives will be allowed to adopt a child or stepchild from another country.

«We express our appreciation to those foreign governments and families, who wish to adopt Chinese children, for their good intention and the love and kindness they have shown,» said Mao Ning, a foreign ministry spokesperson.

Lemay confirmed the change with his adoption agency and the Quebec government. He wants the federal government to advocate to China for the completion of applications that were already in progress.

«Given our age, we don't think there's going to be another possibility,» he said.

In an emailed statement to, the department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said it is «working