The federal government signed a $20-billion final settlement agreement to compensate First Nations children and families harmed by the chronic underfunding of on-reserve child care, which Indigenous Services Canada said Monday was the largest such settlement in Canadian history. “First Nations children deserve to be surrounded by love and live without discrimination from government policy,” Cindy Woodhouse, Manitoba regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said in a statement Monday. “And after three decades of advocacy and months of negotiations, I am proud to say on behalf of AFN that we have reached another historic milestone for our children and their families.” The agreement, reached between Canada, the Assembly of First Nations and plaintiffs in two class-action lawsuits, also explains the federal government’s narrow definition of the Jordan Authority. It was designed to ensure that jurisdictional disputes over the payment of services for First Nations children do not impede the delivery of those services. “The parties have agreed to a plan to settle claims to recognize families and people who have suffered terribly from discriminatory and systemically racist child welfare practices,” Indigenous Services Secretary Patty Hajdu said in an interview. The federal government announced in January that it had reached agreements in principle, which include $20 billion in compensation and another $20 billion to reform the First Nations child welfare system over five years. The entire $40 billion was earmarked for the 2021 budget update. The First Nations Children and Family Caring Society and the Assembly of First Nations first filed a complaint under the Canadian Human Rights Act in 2007, arguing that the chronic underfunding of child welfare services in detention was discriminatory compared to services provided by provincial governments to children in other communities. Ottawa pays for child welfare on reserve, but only matches provincial costs if children are placed in foster care. The result is far more adoptions and family separations than needed, and fewer services and supports to help families cope with a crisis. Data from the 2016 census shows that less than eight per cent of Canadian children under 15 are Indigenous, but Indigenous youth make up more than half of children under 15 in foster care. The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled in 2016 that the federal government had discriminated against First Nations children. The Liberal government appealed the decision, asking the court to overturn it. The court refused. In 2019, the court ordered the government to pay the maximum compensation it could order—$40,000—to each child who was wrongfully removed from their families since January 1, 2006, and to parents or grandparents whose children were removed. The court also ruled that the criteria should be expanded to make more First Nations children eligible for the Jordan Authority. The federal government also challenged the court’s orders in the Federal Court and last fall appealed the ruling upholding it. But that appeal was put on hold pending negotiations with indigenous leaders over the compensation scheme. Former Senator Murray Sinclair, who chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, was brought in to help facilitate the talks. The agreement has now been finally signed by all parties and filed in Federal Court. Both the court and the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal will have to approve the settlement before any money is given. Hajdu said she is unable to say when people will be able to apply and receive compensation, but the AFN said it expects this to happen in the next year. The other $20 billion earmarked for long-term reforms includes funding for five years for the First Nations Child and Family Services program. Hajdu said the negotiation is more complex and requires the creation of “built-in mechanisms to ensure that children receive equal and adequate care and increasingly that indigenous communities have the tools they need to take that control of this themselves.” care”. These reforms will largely be driven by Bill C-92, passed in June 2019, which affirms that jurisdiction over child welfare services in Indigenous communities rests with Indigenous families and communities themselves. This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 4, 2022.
