Get 40% Off
🤯 This Tech Portfolio is up 29% YTD! Join Now to Get April’s Top PicksGet The Picks – Just 99 USD

Court backs ruling that Canada must compensate indigenous foster children for discrimination

Published 09/29/2021, 09:32 PM
Updated 09/29/2021, 10:01 PM

By Moira Warburton and Anna Mehler Paperny

(Reuters) -Canada's Federal Court on Wednesday upheld a human rights tribunal ruling ordering the Canadian government to compensate indigenous children and families in foster care for suffering discrimination.

The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled in 2016 that the federal government allocated less funds for child and family services of indigenous people than for non-indigenous people, pushing more indigenous children into foster care.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government appealed the tribunal's follow-up order in 2019 that Ottawa pay each affected child C$40,000 ($31,500), the maximum allowed under the Canadian Human Rights Act. The tribunal also said that with some exceptions, parents or grandparents of the children would also be eligible for compensation.

The tribunal's ruling could cost the federal government billions of dollars.

Federal Court Justice Paul Favel rejected the government's appeal and encouraged the two parties to continue negotiating.

"The parties must decide whether they will continue to sit beside the trail or move forward in this spirit of reconciliation," Favel wrote, referring to an indigenous parable about a man who sits beside a trail for so long that it grows over and he loses his way.

Trudeau's government could appeal the court's decision. His government has argued in the past that although the human rights tribunal was correct in finding discrimination in the system, it overreached by ordering compensation.

The government is reviewing the decision and more information "will be forthcoming," Marc Miller, minister for indigenous services, said in an emailed statement.

"Canada remains committed to compensating First Nations children who were removed from their families and communities," he added.

Cindy Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society that brought the original complaint, said the ruling was "a complete rejection of all the government’s spurious arguments, and a complete win for kids."

The Canadian government's legal battles with indigenous people have come under increased scrutiny after hundreds of unmarked graves were discovered at the sites of former residential schools.

Until as recently as 1996, Canada's residential school system separated children from their families and sent them to boarding schools where they were malnourished, beaten and sexually abused in what the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission called "cultural genocide" in 2015.

($1 = 1.27 Canadian dollars)

Latest comments

Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.
© 2007-2024 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.