Aboriginal children | Signature of a 20 billion agreement

(Ottawa) A new step has been taken in the process of compensating First Nations children and their families who have been harmed by the discriminatory and chronic underfunding of children’s services: an agreement worth 20 billion has just been signed between the federal government and the class action plaintiffs.

Melanie Marquis
The Press

The final compensation settlement agreement between the Government of Canada, the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) and the plaintiffs in two class action lawsuits, which was signed on Monday, will have to be validated by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal , then submitted to the Federal Court of Canada for approval.

The pact provides for the payment of $20 billion to tens of thousands of Indigenous children who lived on reserves in certain provinces and the Yukon, and who were removed from their homes between April 1991 and March 2022 and then knowingly received services under -funded by the federal government.

It seals an agreement in principle that was reached last January, and it is also part of a global settlement totaling $40 billion. The other half of the envelope will be used to lay the foundations for a five-year reform of child services in Aboriginal communities across the country.

“This final settlement agreement is an important step towards acknowledging the harm done and beginning the hard work of healing,” Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu said in a statement, noting that “no compensation” will can heal pain and trauma.

“First Nations children have always deserved to be treated fairly and equitably, and this settlement recognizes that was neither the policy nor the practice,” said Cindy Woodhouse, Regional Chief for Manitoba. of the APN.

There are far more placements of Aboriginal children than non-Aboriginal children in Canada. According to data from the 2016 census, less than 8% of children under the age of 15 were indigenous, but they represent 15% of all children placed in foster homes.

Both parties say they hope for a quick ratification of the agreement by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal and the Federal Court. The approval of both authorities is required for the process of implementing the regulation to begin.

Decades of legal battle

Monday’s initialed agreement, which the AFN calls “historic compensation,” ends a legal saga that spanned nearly three decades and months of negotiations.

The Trudeau government had come under harsh criticism from several Indigenous groups for its decision to appeal a 2019 judgment by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, which set the amount to be paid to each of the aggrieved children at $40,000. , including their parents and guardians.

Last October, while appealing a Federal Court decision upholding the order, the government launched negotiations under the supervision of retired Senator Murray Sinclair, who chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on native boarding schools.

The agreement signed Monday also puts an end to a dispute affecting children who were penalized from 2007 to 2017 by the federal government’s narrow definition of “Jordan’s principle”. He wants an Aboriginal child to receive the services he needs when there is a jurisdictional dispute between Ottawa and the provinces.

It was named in memory of Jordan River Anderson of Norway House Cree Nation, Manitoba.

“Born with complex medical needs, he spent more than two years unnecessarily in hospital while the Province of Manitoba and the federal government argued over who should pay for his care at home. Jordan died in hospital at the age of five, never was he able to spend a day in his family home,” reads the website of the Child and Family Caring Society. of First Nations.

With The Canadian Press