(Ottawa) Cindy Blackstock, one of the people behind the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal case that resulted in a historic out-of-court settlement, says she is concerned about the “imbalance” between what lawyers and victims will receive.
Last month, the Federal Court approved a historic $23 billion class action settlement to compensate more than 300,000 First Nations children and their families for chronic underfunding of child welfare services. in reserves.
The federal government and lawyers from five class action firms have since reached an additional $55 million agreement on legal costs, which they promised to negotiate as part of the settlement, but which has not yet been finalized. approved by the Federal Court.
Lawyers involved in the class action had initially asked the federal government to pay 80 million in compensation, but Ottawa deemed it too much.
Mme Blackstock says she is concerned about the “imbalance” of compensation paid to lawyers, while victims should receive relatively little, according to her.
The settlement came after a years-long battle with the federal government, which resulted in a 2016 court ruling declaring the underfunding to be discriminatory, and a 2019 decision awarding $40,000 in compensation to each person affected.