The Canadian government has signed an agreement to pay 20 billion Canadian dollars in compensation for a lawsuit that has been ongoing since 2007 involving children of First Nations indigenous families.
The Canadian government has signed an agreement to pay 20 billion Canadian dollars in compensation for a lawsuit alleging that indigenous children placed in foster care were subjected to assimilation similar to that of church boarding schools.
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“After three decades of advocacy and months of negotiations, I am proud to say on behalf of the AFN that we have reached another historic milestone for our children and their families,” said Cindy Woodhouse, Manitoba Regional Officer for the Assembly of Indigenous Peoples of Canada (AFN).
The agreement between the government, AFN and the plaintiffs was designed to ensure that legal disputes over over overpayments for Indigenous children’s services would not prevent children from receiving these services.
“The parties have agreed on a plan for compensation claims for families and people who have suffered great harm from discriminatory and systematically racist child welfare practices,” said Patty Hajdu, Minister of Indigenous Services Canada.
In January, the Canadian government agreed to pay $20 billion in compensation to the children of First Nations indigenous families.
First Nations indigenous people are known as “one of the largest indigenous communities”, along with Metis and Inuit across Canada.
The legal process took 15 years
The legal struggle over indigenous children, which has become the number one agenda item in the country with the unmarked graves of children found in the gardens of church boarding schools across Canada in the last year, began in 2007.
The First Nations Child and Family Care Association filed a lawsuit against the federal government at the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT) in 2007, alleging that the child welfare system was flawed and discriminated against indigenous children.
