The Trudeau government lost a record-breaking settlement in court Tuesday and now Canadians owe a whopping $23 billion to indigenous families.The government fought the penalty in court but lost in a record-breaking settlement, as the CBC pointed out. The reparations suit will reach 300,000 First Nations children and their families and cost each Canadian approximately $622. A further $20 billion has been pledged to reform indigenous child-welfare systems. In 2019, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled in favour of a human rights penalty and suggested a settlement of $40,000 per affected First Nations child and family — which a federal judge approved this week. The funding will go towards compensating “chronic underfunding” of on-reserve child-welfare services, such as school supplies and medical gear.However, Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu said the money won’t heal the wounds. "Families were shattered. People grew up not knowing anything about their backgrounds, their true connection to culture or language," Hadju said Tuesday."And First Nations children with profound disabilities did not get access to the supports they needed to thrive."The Assembly of First Nations and the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society first launched the lawsuit in 2007 and has engaged Ottawa in a years-long battle ever since. Three years prior to the tribunal’s ruling, it found that First Nations people were “adversely impacted” by government services and were sometimes denied services altogether. "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 tribunal ruled in 2016.
The Trudeau government lost a record-breaking settlement in court Tuesday and now Canadians owe a whopping $23 billion to indigenous families.The government fought the penalty in court but lost in a record-breaking settlement, as the CBC pointed out. The reparations suit will reach 300,000 First Nations children and their families and cost each Canadian approximately $622. A further $20 billion has been pledged to reform indigenous child-welfare systems. In 2019, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled in favour of a human rights penalty and suggested a settlement of $40,000 per affected First Nations child and family — which a federal judge approved this week. The funding will go towards compensating “chronic underfunding” of on-reserve child-welfare services, such as school supplies and medical gear.However, Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu said the money won’t heal the wounds. "Families were shattered. People grew up not knowing anything about their backgrounds, their true connection to culture or language," Hadju said Tuesday."And First Nations children with profound disabilities did not get access to the supports they needed to thrive."The Assembly of First Nations and the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society first launched the lawsuit in 2007 and has engaged Ottawa in a years-long battle ever since. Three years prior to the tribunal’s ruling, it found that First Nations people were “adversely impacted” by government services and were sometimes denied services altogether. "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 tribunal ruled in 2016.
