The tentative agreement, which will be finalized in the coming months, aims to end years of litigation.
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It’s about “Largest Compensation Agreement in Canadian History”, welcomed the government. Ottawa announced Tuesday, January 4 the conclusion of an agreement in principle amounting to 40 billion Canadian dollars (27.8 billion euros) to compensate indigenous children and their families victims of discrimination.
From the late 19th century to the 1990s, some 150,000 children of indigenous peoples were forcibly placed in now closed residential schools, where they were cut off from their families, language and culture. Thousands never returned. The Catholic Church in Canada issued an official apology for these facts in September.
The tentative agreement, which will be finalized in the coming months, aims to end years of litigation. Half of this sum will be used to compensate indigenous children withdrawn from their parents’ care and placed in the child protection system, the other will allow this system to be reformed over the next five years.
“No compensation can compensate for the trauma people have suffered”, observed Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hadju. But the agreement “recognizes for survivors and their families the pain and harm caused by discrimination in funding and services”.
The exact amount that will be paid to each person, as well as the terms and timing, will be determined during consultations between experts and the country’s main indigenous organization, the Assembly of First Nations, said plaintiff lawyers in two cases. .
“This agreement is historic and we hope that it will mark a decisive turning point in the work of reconciliation in this country”, observed one of these lawyers. According to him, its amount “underlines the seriousness of the damage suffered and will provide financial support to enable victims to improve their lives moving forward”.