Ottawa to argue appeal of tribunal order to compensate First Nations children
Credit to Author: The Canadian Press| Date: Sun, 24 Nov 2019 23:44:21 +0000
Federal lawyers will be in court on Monday to argue the government’s appeal of a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruling that ordered Ottawa to pay billions of dollars in compensation to First Nations children and their families.
The tribunal’s September ruling came shortly before the start of the federal election campaign and has ratcheted up criticism of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s commitment to reconciliation.
The tribunal ordered the federal government to pay $40,000 for every First Nations child who was inappropriately taken away from their parents after 2006. It said the government “wilfully and recklessly” discriminated against Indigenous children living on-reserve by not properly funding child and family services.
The Assembly of First Nations estimated that 54,000 children and their parents could be eligible for total compensation that could exceed $2 billion.
The government has said it planned to appeal the damage award because the timing of the election campaign made it impossible to organize compensation by a Dec. 10 deadline.
On Monday, Justice Department lawyers will ask the Federal Court for a stay of execution of the tribunal’s order during the first of two days of hearings set aside for the case.
Trudeau has said he agrees with many of the tribunal’s findings, but that more time is needed for consultation than the tribunal’s Dec. 10 deadline allows. The new session of what is expected to be a fractious House of Commons opens on Dec. 5 and runs until Dec. 13, before breaking for the holidays. It is not scheduled to resume again until Jan. 27.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has urged Trudeau to drop the appeal, saying he shouldn’t be taking First Nations children to court.
The government’s decision to petition the court to delay the effect of the ruling sparked more criticism on Sunday.
The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs held a news conference in Vancouver and a led a march in the Downtown Eastside.
Supporters listen to Dawn Johnson who was in foster care as a child and has worked with youth in care since aging out of the system speaking out at Crab Park during a rally in Vancouver, BC, November 24, 2019. Indigenous survivors of Canada’s foster care systems gathered in the Downtown Eastside Sunday on the eve of a landmark court case.
Several people who struggled through the child-welfare system said they were inspired to speak out after the death of a 29-year-old man who had few resources when he aged out of care and fatally overdosed in a shelter on Nov. 13.
Jaye Simpson, a former youth in care, said there’s no point in the government discussing reconciliation if discriminatory policies continue and the tribunal’s decision is challenged.
“This is the act of destruction of culture, language and life,” said Simpson, who is also a community organizer. “All of us have the capacity to re-engage with our culture, our ceremony and life but that is being impeded by Trudeau’s unjust recognition of this.”
The federal government must recognize that discrimination is at the heart of policies that have allowed for the forced removal of children from their families and that has caused generations of despair, she said.
“What is reconciliation in all of this? We can acknowledge the youth we lost during the residential school (system) and the Sixties Scoop but what is all of that if no change comes about? There’s no change. All of this work feels like noting if the distribution of funds and justice aren’t allowed to our people.”
Dawn Johnson, who also spent her childhood in government care, said Ottawa doesn’t need to do any more consultations before ending discriminatory policies.
“They’ve been fighting this since 2006, so we’re going on 14 years that the government is wilfully and recklessly choosing economics and finances over the lives of children and families,” Johnson said.
“They’ve had plenty of time to cease the discrimination and have funnelled billions of dollars into taking Indigenous children to court and righting this. They need to cease the discrimination now. They need to compensate.”
Johnson said the higher cost of separating children from families comes from more Indigenous people behind bars, on the streets and in the mental-health system so compensation would be a cheaper alternative for the government.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 24, 2019.