OTTAWA—While it is being called good news that a federal court has approved the $23.4 billion First Nations child-welfare settlement to compensate more than 300,000 First Nations children and their families, it does not erase the pain for those that have been involved in the past.
“It is about time,” stated Glen Hare, Ontario Regional Chief to the news last week of the federal court approval. “It is definitely good news, and I know there will be comments out there on the pros and cons of this, but the reality is that it will not wipe out all the memories of the past, but it will provide some consolation to those of our people who have gone through hell in the past,” said Ontario Regional Chief Hare.
Ontario Regional Chief Hare told The Expositor. “Now that the major approvals have been given, we will welcome the day when our people have this money in their hands.”
Anishinabek Nation Grand Council Chief Reg Niganobe commended the federal court settlement approval. “Money can’t undo the harm that has been caused by this systemic discrimination, however, financial restitution is the only compensation Canada can provide,” he was quoted by Anishinabek News as saying. “This settlement agreement is a step towards justice for First Nations children and families.”
The federal court approval is the latest decision in an historic human rights case filed in 2007 by the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada and the AFN.
In 2016, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT) found the federal government willfully and recklessly discriminating against First Nations through the inequitable funding of child and family services and through failure to fully implement Jordan’s Principle. Canada was immediately ordered to cease its discriminatory conduct.
“The Anishinabek Nation’s approach to preventing this kind of discrimination is embedded within the organization,” Anishinabek Nation Children’s Commissioner Duke Peltier told Anishinabek News. “We’ve been entrusted to ensure we raise our children in the proper way, together with our families and communities.”
Canadian Press reported on October 24 that a federal court judge verbally approved the landmark $23 billion settlement.
Joanna Bernard, interim national chief of the AFN, spoke of how the plaintiffs were resilient in advocating for themselves and their communities. She said her organization is “very, very pleased” with this outcome and eager for children and their relatives to receive the compensation as soon as possible.
Canadian Press reported that Cindy Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, was thinking of the victims and is looking forward to see “comprehensive supports” for them as the process continues.
The society also suggested in a statement that it hopes this settlement is the last one. It says it owes it to those harmed in this case, survivors of residential schools and the ‘60s Scoop and the public “to ensure Canada stops its ongoing discrimination against First Nations children, youth, and families and to prevent it from happening again.”
The panel acknowledges the suffering of those First Nations children and families who are or have been denied an equitable opportunity to remain together or to be reunited in a timely manner,” the 2016 ruling said.
In 2019, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ordered Ottawa to pay $40,000, the maximum penalty for discrimination, to each child inappropriately removed from their homes beginning in 2006, as well as their parents or grandparents.
Child welfare was also among the central issues flagged in the report by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu said the settlement’s approval is one piece of a broader reform of the child-welfare system, and survivors have said a monetary sum won’t heal the traumas they’ve experienced.
“Families were shattered. People grew up not knowing anything about their backgrounds, their true connection to culture or language,” Minister Hajdu said in a press conference on Tuesday of last week. “And First Nations children with profound disabilities did not get access to the supports they needed to thrive.”
As for the size of the settlement, Minister Hajdu said she understands how tough it might be for people to “wrap their head around the magnitude of damage that’s been done to families. These are individuals, families, parents of children who have suffered tremendously trying to do the best that they can with a system that discriminated in profound ways.”
Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree said the settlement is a significant step toward reconciliation.
“The cost of reconciliation goes higher and higher as we put off very critical decisions, especially on past harms,” Minister Anandasangaree told reporters on Parliament Hill. “And what we have done today, I think, it’s really to recognize the enormous harm that the practices have caused on young people particularly but also their families and communities.”
“We still have kids in our communities being picked up by child welfare and taken away. This has to stop,” said Ontario Regional Chief Hare. “I just hope no government in the future has to deal with compensation in the future that we are dealing with now.”
“Yes, the announcement of approvals that has been given for $23 billion for the child-welfare settlement is good, but our people have had to live through hell to get that. It is not being handed over on a platter,” stated Ontario Regional Chief Hare.
“The federal court has approved a settlement agreement that First Nations children, youth, and families deserve,” Grand Council Chief Niganobe told Anishinabek News. “As a meaningful act of reconciliation, we look forward to a formal apology from the prime minister and remain hopeful that Canada will continue to work with First Nations in achieving generational healing through reformation.”
