Some had feared last fall that the federal government would try once again to escape by appealing a Federal Court decision that forced it to compensate Aboriginal people removed from their families when they were children.
Posted on January 9
At the time, Liberal ministers promised that they did not want to “reduce the amounts decided by the courts”, but rather give themselves the time to negotiate “a lasting agreement”.
They were telling the truth.
It’s done.
Two agreements in principle, which provide for the payment of some 40 billion, were announced this week.
It is a historic settlement that it is important to underline.
After the shock of last year’s gruesome discoveries and our awareness of the horrors wrought by the residential school system, it is reassuring to see that there are things moving in the right direction.
This is all the more remarkable given that this litigation has dragged on since 2007, even though during all this time no one denied the discriminatory nature of child protection services against Aboriginals.
Hundreds of thousands of Aboriginals and their families will therefore be entitled to compensation under these agreements, which should be formalized in the coming months.
It should be noted that a significant portion of this amount will be used, at the same time, to reform the federal First Nations child and family services program.
It should also be noted – this is also crucial – that the announced agreements come in the wake of another major change in these services: the adoption by Ottawa of Bill C-92 in 2019.
This law made it possible to recognize the competence of indigenous peoples in this area.
And we are not here in theory, but in practice. Concretely, we offered the communities the possibility of creating their own youth protection laws.
In Quebec, the Atikamekw nation of Opitciwan announced last fall that it was moving forward. Its law is expected to come into force in mid-January.
These are not cosmetic changes.
They are fundamental.
The Commission of Inquiry into the Relations between the Aboriginals and Certain Public Services in Quebec (chaired by Jacques Viens) bitterly summed up the extent of the problem that we are currently trying to resolve.
She pointed out that the boarding schools may have disappeared, but that their “deleterious effects” are, from the point of view of many, reproduced by the current system which ensures “to remove each year a significant number of children from their families. and their communities to entrust them to non-native host families ”.
The problem of the over-representation of indigenous children within the current child welfare system is not unrelated to the fact that it “is imposed from outside on indigenous peoples and does not take into account their conceptions of the family. nor of their cultures ”.
The federal government has therefore (finally) understood that it is more than urgent to change its approach.
On the Quebec side, on the other hand, it is less clear.
First, because the government of François Legault said it was bothered by Bill C-92 adopted by Ottawa. The federal government is encroaching on Quebec’s jurisdiction, he argues. Consequently, he asked the Quebec Court of Appeal to rule on the constitutionality of this legislation.
Secondly, because the provincial government had the opportunity to draw inspiration from the objectives of Bill C-92 last year when it announced its long-awaited reform of the Youth Protection Act (Bill 15) last December… but he didn’t.
It has made improvements aimed, among other things, at speeding up the process that allows Aboriginals to obtain more autonomy in this area.
But the recommended changes have left several indigenous leaders hungry for food, who feel that their right to self-determination is not fully recognized.
In the office of the Minister responsible for Native Affairs Ian Lafrenière, they say they recognize the will of Native communities to want to take the destiny of their children into their own hands.
However, there are – legitimate – questions about the operationalization in the field of laws on the protection of young people which could multiply within the aboriginal nations.
That’s good news: we will soon be examining Bill 15 (on youth protection) from all angles in Quebec.
This will be an opportunity for the Legault government to find common ground with the aboriginal nations. And therefore, to prove that he really intends to respond once and for all to their demands in matters of youth protection.