Lucy Tookalook and Tanya Jones, two women who present themselves as “survivors of the DPJ in Nunavik” want to “end discrimination against Inuit children” and protect future generations.
To do so, they are bringing a class action against the Government of Quebec and Canada for what they allege are “decades of illegal and discriminatory underfunding of youth protection services and other essential services for children who live in Nunavik”.
The request for authorization to institute a class action was filed Monday in the Superior Court of Quebec by the law firms Sotos Class Actions, Kugler Kandestin and Coupal Chauvelot. “We are confident that it will be allowed,” says lawyer William Colish.
In the document, which is about forty pages long, the two plaintiffs present their difficult journey. Barely out of her mother’s womb, in 1975, Lucy Tookalook was separated from her mother “for unknown reasons”. Tanya Jones was taken from her family in the 1980s at the age of three. They both allege having experienced “horrible” abuses in the DPJ system, which was supposed to protect them.
“Neither received mental health support — or any other form of support for that matter — to deal with the trauma of being torn from their families and abused,” says the document. “Abandoned by a dysfunctional, underfunded and discriminatory system, both applicants resorted to alcohol and drugs from the age of nine to cope with their trauma.”
And they are not the only ones, claim the lawyers who bring the case to court. “A disproportionate number of Inuit children confronted with the DYP in Nunavik have been seriously neglected, they write in the request. While many were unnecessarily removed from their families, others who really needed protection were simply ignored by the state. »
The document states that “it is not the individual fault of the Nunavik child care workers, most of whom were doing their best”, but rather that of “systematic underfunding” which prevented from providing the care the children needed.
The allegations of the legal proceedings have still not been proven, and the defendants have not yet had the opportunity to make their case in court.
Shared responsibilities
Since the signing of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement in 1975, Quebec and Ottawa have shared responsibility for the public services offered in Nunavik. However, the two levels of government have “violated the fundamental rights of the members of the group, in particular their right to equality, by neglecting to offer youth protection services, health care and other essential social services comparable to those received by other Canadian children,” the lawyers allege.
However, the governments have repeatedly been warned of the serious problems raging in Nunavik, insist the lawyers who present numerous reports published over the years, including that of the Commission des droits de la personne et du droit de la jeunesse in 2007 and that of the Viens Commission, in 2019. “Instead of addressing these chronic failures, the two levels of government have shied away from their responsibilities and passed the buck as if neither had jurisdiction and/or the duty to act for the children of Nunavik,” argue the lawyers.
They are claiming an amount that can range between $40,000 and $300,000 for each member of the class action as well as punitive damages. Are represented the Inuit children of Nunavik who were part of the child protection system between 1975 and today, those who were confronted with a lack of essential services as well as their parents. “Parents are full members because they have seen their child in the system and family ties have been severed,” says lawyer William Colish. They too have lost something. »
By speaking out for the children of the DPJ in Nunavik, Lucy Tookalook and Tanya Jones want to break “the cycle of intergenerational trauma” in order to prevent subsequent generations from paying the price. “I am taking action today because I want justice for my people – my people who have been treated inhumanely for decades,” Tanya Jones said in a press release released Tuesday. I want the children of Nunavik to have a chance to be heard by the courts. I want their pain and suffering to be heard, felt and repaired. »