OTTAWA –
The federal government has signed a final $20 billion settlement to compensate First Nations children and families affected by chronic underfunding of on-reserve child welfare, which Indigenous Services Canada said Monday was the largest of its kind deal in Canadian history.
“First Nations children deserve to be surrounded by love and live without discriminatory government policies,” Cindy Woodhouse, Manitoba regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said in a statement Monday.
“And after three decades of advocacy and months of negotiations, I am proud to say on behalf of AFN that we have achieved another historic milestone for our children and their families.”
The settlement reached between Canada, the Assembly of First Nations and plaintiffs in two class actions also takes into account the federal government’s narrow definition of the Jordan Principle. It was created to ensure that jurisdictional squabbles over the payment of services for First Nations children do not interfere with the provision of those services.
“The parties have agreed on a plan to settle compensation claims to recognize the families and individuals who have suffered tremendously through discriminatory and systemically racist child welfare practices,” Indigenous Peoples Minister Patty Haidu said in an interview.
The federal government announced in January that it had reached agreements in principle that include $20 billion in compensation and another $20 billion to reform the First Nations child welfare system over five years. The full $40 billion was set aside in the 2021 fiscal update.
The First Nations Child and Family Care Society and the Assembly of First Nations first filed a complaint under the Canadian Human Rights Act in 2007, arguing that the chronic underfunding of on-reserve child protection services was discriminatory in comparison with services provided by provincial governments to children in other communities.
Ottawa pays for child welfare as a reserve, but only meets the province’s costs if the children are placed in foster care. The result is far more child arrests and family breakdowns than necessary, and fewer services and supports to help families cope with the crisis.
Census data from 2016 shows that less than eight percent of Canadian children under the age of 15 are Indigenous, but Indigenous youth make up more than half of children under 15 in foster care.
The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled in 2016 that the federal government discriminated against First Nations children. The Liberal government is appealing that decision, asking the court to overturn it. The court refused.
In 2019, the tribunal ordered the government to pay the maximum compensation it can order – $40,000 – to any child who was unnecessarily removed from their families after January 1, 2006, and to parents or grandparents, whose children were taken away.
The tribunal also ruled that the criteria should be expanded so that more First Nations children could be eligible for the Jordan Principle.
The federal government also challenged the tribunal’s orders in the Federal Court and last autumn appealed the decision which upheld it.
But that appeal was put on hold pending negotiations with local leaders over the compensation programme. Former senator Murray Sinclair, who chairs the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, was hired to help facilitate the talks.
The settlement was finally signed by all parties and filed in Federal Court. Both the court and the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal will have to approve the settlement before any money is distributed.
Haidu said he could not say when people would be able to apply and receive compensation, but the AFN said it expected it to happen in the next year.
The other $20 billion earmarked for long-term reforms includes funding over five years for the First Nations Child and Family Services program.
Haidu said the negotiations were more complex and required the creation of “built-in mechanisms to ensure that children receive equal and adequate care and, increasingly, that local communities have the tools they need to take that control themselves on this care’.
These reforms will largely take place under Bill C-92, passed in June 2019, which reaffirms that jurisdiction over Indigenous child protection services rests with Indigenous families and communities themselves.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 4, 2022.
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