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“They mention they don’t want their black children raised in Florida if there is another option,” said Karyn Bakelaar, who is in charge of the Florida program for Children’s Bridge.

Canadians have been adopting infants from Florida for more than a decade. But a trend that began in British Columbia has now spread to a number of provinces, including Ontario, through Children’s Bridge.

Murphy said it is sad to hear the reasons some mothers are choosing Canadian families to raise their children, but it is not surprising.

Melanie Kassandji, an adoption co-ordinator with Hollywood, Florida-based Adoption by Shepherd Care, which works with The Children’s Bridge, said birth mothers choose Canadian families for a variety of reasons, mainly because they think they will provide their infant with a good life. And Canada’s parental leave benefits are often a deciding factor, as is the fact that Canada is relatively close. She also noted that the majority of Florida families adopting children from their agency are Caucasian and are more likely to adopt Caucasian children.

Racism, she said, does come up when birth mothers choose families to adopt their children.

“Our birth mothers express things like: ‘I have experienced racism and I don’t want that for my child,’” she said.

“We have girls that say ‘I don’t want my baby growing up in Florida.’”

Florida’s racial realities were highlighted with the death of 17-year-old Florida high school student Trayvon Martin in 2012. The black teenager, who was unarmed, was shot by a neighbourhood watch co-ordinator in the gated community where he was temporarily staying. George Zimmerman argued he was defending himself under Florida’s controversial Stand Your Ground law, and was later acquitted.