The applicants, foster parents to three young children, applied to adopt them.
The adoption process was halted and the respondent Society decided to remove the children and refuse the adoption application after the foster father disclosed a historical incident of sexual abuse from when he was 20 years old.
The foster father moved out of the home, underwent a sexual offender risk assessment which found him to be at low risk, and engaged in counselling.
The Child and Family Services Review Board rescinded the Society's decisions, finding that the risk of harm from breaking the children's strong attachments to the applicants outweighed the low risk of future abuse, and ordered that the adoption homestudy proceed.