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UPDATE: As of January 25, 2021, nearly 9,700 Sixties Scoop Survivors are reportedly still waiting to find out if they’ll receive compensation in the $875 million class action settlement.
The Canadian government agreed to settle with Sixties Scoop survivors back in 2017 and the claims period ended 16 months ago, but thousands of applicants are still stuck in limbo.
Initially, Collectiva, the claims administrator, had until May 31 to process the applications and report the final number of eligible claims. However, that deadline was suspended in April due to the coronavirus pandemic and a new one has yet to be set.
Collectiva has also stopped denying claims saying in part, “given the current public health circumstances, we are continuing the pause on denying applications for the time being. What that means is that no claim will be denied during this time. However, we are actively assessing claims and, where possible, approving them and issuing interim payments” according to the settlement website update.
Sixties Scoop survivors say they’re fed up and they want Collectiva’s deadline reinstated, according to a letter reportedly sent to class counsel.
“The deadlines should all be reinstated and a final tally of numbers be reported to Canada by May 31, 2021, or sooner, so that final payments can begin to flow to survivors, and so people can move on and heal.”
The letter makes other recommendations including, sending a reminder letter to claimants who need to submit more information and including interest in claimants final payments after May 31. The requests were denied, according to The Tyee.
Top Class Actions will continue to follow this lawsuit settlement and report updates as we learn more. Click on the “Follow Article” at the top of this page to get the latest updates about the Sixties Scoop settlement by using your free Top Class Actions account. For the latest updates, keep checking ca.TopClassActions.com or sign up for our free newsletter.
Interim Payments to Sixties Scoop Survivors Approved, Amid COVID-19 Delays
Citing obstacles created by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Court has reportedly approved a request to delay payments to Sixties Scoop survivors. Interim payments of $21,000 will reportedly be sent to people whose applications under the Sixties Scoop settlement have already been approved.
Sixties Scoop survivors include those who were involuntarily taken from their Indigenous families and placed in foster and adoptive homes. According to reporting by the CBC, the practice spanned a number of decades, from the late 1950s through early 1990s. Practices were instigated by a series of provincial policies enacted by welfare agencies that saw Indigenous children taken from their homes and placed in a white home. The now-adult children subject to these policies say they lost their culture and family and many were victims of abuse.
In 2017, the government of Canada agreed to pay Sixties Scoop survivors, along with First Nations, $750 million. The amount of each survivor’s payment would depend on the number of eligible claims submitted and the claims process opened last year.
According to a recent report by the CBC, the Sixties Scoop settlement process has been delayed by challenges posed by the COVID-19 crisis. The claims administrator, Collectiva, has reportedly received nearly 35,000 claims, but has only processed 40 percent of that total.
In late March, at the beginning of the COVID crisis, a federal judge reportedly ordered payments of $25,000 be made to qualifying Sixties Scoop Class Members “, once more than 4,767 claimants’ applications have been fully and finally rejected without further opportunity for review or reconsideration.” However, the process is now further delayed as coronavirus related restrictions drag on.
One of the lawyers representing Class Members told CBC News reporters that the process has been delayed by the closure of provincial archives that claims assessors need to determine whether a claim is eligible.
“Our priority right now is to get eligible class members the payments they are owed as quickly as possible,” the lawyer told reporters. “I know that these delays have taken a real emotional toll on many people and I am personally committed to getting survivors both the information and the justice they deserve.”
In a recent order, Justice Michael L. Phelan allowed Sixties Scoop survivors who have made claims that were determined to be eligible. Claims will be paid out at $21,000 and are considered interim.
Sixties Scoop Survivors Frustrated With Settlement Process
Some Sixties Scoop survivors are frustrated with the process, according to the CBC.
“We didn’t realize it would be almost four years later that we would get paid, even now we’re not even sure when,” co-founder of the Sixties Scoop Network, formerly known as the National Indigenous Survivors of Child Welfare Network, Colleen Hele-Cardinal told reporters. “We’re hearing the day school survivors are getting their money and their lawsuit started after ours. It’s very frustrating.”
Hele-Cardinal followed up with concerns about how the Sixties Scoop settlement is being handled.
“It’s not good enough. Whether we like it or not, this is what we got, even if we didn’t ask for it. It feels like a really bad deal,” Hele-Cardinal told reporters. “We want justice. We want more than just this. We want our stories shared, we want people all over the world to know what Canada did to us, and continues to do to our families.”
Another Sixties Scoop survivor told reporters that she doesn’t expect she will ever see payment.
“If I ever see a cheque, I would be surprised. I really don’t expect them to pay us,” a Sixties Scoop survivor and director of a women’s shelter for Native women in Montreal told reporters. “My whole life direction and struggles is because of the Sixties Scoop. I’ve never been impressed with the government. If they said they’re going to give it to us, then they should follow up.”
For its part, representatives for Canada’s Office of Crown-Indigenous Relations affirmed that it wants Sixties Scoop settlement payments to go out in a timely manner.
“Canada fully supports class counsel’s motion to issue partial payments to class members with a valid claim immediately,” said the Office in a statement regarding the recent judicial order on payments. “Canada has already transferred $500 million to the [claims] administrator for individuals’ compensation to allow payments to be made to the eligible class without further delay once the process resumes. The Government of Canada fully supports efforts to expedite funding wherever possible.”
Are you a Sixties Scoop survivor? What do you think about the delay in the settlement cheques? Tell us your story in the comment section below!
The Sixties Scoop Class Action Lawsuit is Riddle, et al. v. Her Majesty the Queen, Case No. T-2212-16 in the Federal Court of Canada, Ottawa, Canada.
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75 thoughts onSixties Scoop Survivors’ Settlement Cheques Delayed
My father kept us all from residential schools and from ministry.we traveled to Vancouver BC.they started there.we we’re kept from residential schools and when he was killed in the mid sixties,they scooped up all of my siblings and separated us all.they put me in Houston B.C, but I ran away because I wanted to be with my mom and grandma, the ministry just scooped me up and put me in reform school and locked me up with a lot of older criminals which was scary.I tried to run from there and they locked me in a small room with nothing nothing for two weeks.all I wanted was to be with my mom.I wasn’t even told about my grandmother death whom I was very close to.I didn’t get to go to her funeral.I lost all my culture.and ripped us apart from our siblings.there is no apologies just more heart ache from withholding our monies.were getting old how long do we have to suffer.they trick us to sign papers and not pay up.
I am what the Federal Goverment of Canada planned when they started taking young native children and placing them with white families. I was six months old and was placed with a white family who had been living in Canada for only a few years.
As I grew older I begain to understand that not only I wasnt flesh and blood member of this family like my older sister was… but I am also a different race than what my parents are. My skin and hair was darker. I have always known that I was adopted and my parents actually picked me. I’m guessing they told me as a way to make the transaction more important. What I do remember is being told that my natural family couldn’t care for me and my new family could. What that ment to me at the time was…. first parents bad… these parents good. I began to see that Native people in our society being what I didnt want to be… poor, dumb and drunk. Everytime we would come to the city from our small town I saw people who looked dirty and unkempt. I was ashamed that my skin color matched those people’s. I made a point to have a clean cut look and wear clothes that I thought that made me look less native like sport coats and ties. I hated anytime anyone would ask me if I was an Indain. It was a mask I couldn’t take off and makes me feel like a second class citizen. I still have these feelings at times today. I have never gotten comfortable in my own skin. I can say for a fact that there is such a thing as white privilege. I had it and lived it… but as soon as I leave my family it disappears. I joined the class action with the understanding that I could get $50000.00 compensation. I felt that it would help kick start a new life for myself. As it turns out the lawsuit puts native person against nnative as the compensation amount depends on how many others are excepted. Just before I heard about this lawsuit I was lost and alone. I planned to hang myself in a park near my home. The lawsuit seemed like a gift from the heavens. It was a reason to live. 4years later and $21000.00 is what I have been given. Far less than the $50000.00. Now it seems that I may get an extra $4000.00. I was wanting to use the money to better my life and heal my soul. Instead I guess that the extra $4000 if it ever comes can be used to bury me
omg I can relate upper white class
our skin matching the undesirables
your story is my story
First of all i want to be clear what was done and the way it was done was wrong and would be hard for anyone to endure being taken from your birth family and placed with strangers and i feel for those who had to go through this and agree a reparation payment is a step in the right direction to pay for the emotional pains this operation caused which are real and understandable……..
This next part is going to be hard to hear and harder to accept
First of all this was not done with the intentions of harming or destroying native americans quite to the contrary this was a government intervention to attempt to save and better the lives of all the children who were taken from broken substance abusing and often physical abusive homes and place those children … you guys with more stable living situations where you would grow up having more opportunities to become successful or have a life that was just not going to happen if you remained in the care of your birth families on reserves receiving what little money that would trickle down to the tribe members once the chiefs or elders were taken care of first and what little that did reach the members of the tribes was pissed away on friveless desires and very little of it was spent wisely or responsibly on things like proper child care or education or clothing or food .the intentions of those who decided to go ahead with this plan was an attempt to give a generation of native americans a way out of the self destructive negligent and self satisfaction hamster wheel that was and frankly still to this day is the common practice of most native families which all stems from the financial handouts that natives have received as payment because of the guilt felt by members of government of the famously nice and polite country of canada who felt so bad about taking the natives land and building a thriving first world country from which lets face it would never have happened if it was left to native americans to manage the rugged land into a thriving country. Is it harsh of me to say this yes but i have never been the type to beat around the bush i believe truth and honesty is always the right path even when its uncomfortable or unpopular. The fact of the matter is the land wasnt stolen from the natives it wasn’t even claimed by a victorious army who fought the natives to claim the land, it was bought and is still being paid for to this day and thats what has created a culture in native americans of abuse of substance abuse,of complacency, a victim mentality, and no desire to better yourselves or improve your quality of life because you instead have simply adjusted your lives to survive off the handouts and free money that is paid to you and because you have no actual need to get your shit together and put any effort into educating yourselves and improving your ability to find higher paying jobs theres no need to go to school for 12 years so you can land better jobs because you are handed enough money to continue living a meek existence but rather than accepting that you are the only one holding yourself back and breaking the cycle putting your energy into improving yourself and having your hard work pay off with a good job you choose to blame everyone else and complain youre not being handed enough money to be comfortable youve never needed to or learned how to budget your money or save for things like education and so instead youve gotten used to a life of frivless purchases and become dependent on abusing drugs or alchohol to numb the sheer boredom of a life without structure or direction or purpose which again all stems from having the constant government handouts providing you a safety net allowing you to survive all be it just barely but allows you to survive without having to do the normal things the rest of us have to do because there is no safety net for us to rely on if we fail we fall hard and getting back up feels like an impossible task i hear you ppl talk about banding together to sue everyone for your money as if you care about anyones money but your own none of you care that there are many of your brothers and sisters who havent received a first payment you just want the rest of your 50 grand who cares if that means there wouldnt be enough funds left to pay the ppl who havent received any money yet why should you have to wait for them to receive some money before you get the rest of yours like its their fault they havent received any money or their fault that youve all blown through the innitial 21 thousand dollars you received a little more than a year ago and have nothing to show for it. I also hear alot of crap about white privilege which is a complete crock of shit im white and i have had no privilege in life i came from a poor family who was overlooked and ignored just the same as you ppl and many whites have had the same type of life try to keep some prospective they call the rich elites the 1% because the other 99% are not and frankly if anyone enjoys privilege its native americans who have all kinds of education funding government grants and some of the most valuable land in one of the most desirable countries on earth which very few of you ever take advantage of these are opportunities that have been setup for you to utilize to give yourselves an obstacle free path to improving your lives but are rejected because improving ones life takes hard work and can be as boring as watching flies land on shit but it opens up opportunities that otherwise dont exist and there are many kids of all races and ethnic backgrounds who are not offered these hand ups which puts those opportunities out of reach for some ppl who truly want them and who recognize it as a road to a better life.
I speak honestly and openly and i know what ive said will not sit well with some of you but try to understand what i say comes from a place of caring from a place of equality im treating this and you no differently than i would my own blood brother or sister sometimes what we really need is someone to be honest with us and give it to us straight so that the issues no one else will speak of from fear of how it will be received or how someone might react to it or fear of being labelled a racist are addressed and acknowledged because nothing is ever going to change or get better if you cant ever acknowledge or speak about whats really causing them once you can identify and accept the cause youll have a much better chance of confronting and overcoming whatever has been preventing you from taking the right steps needed to lift you out of the dark and into the light
And again i support the reparations payments for the survivors of this well meaning but ultimately poorly concocted plan the government executed on native americans though i have my doubts that it will do anything to change or help any of you and think it will only serve to further enable poor decisions and just be blown on crap rather than used responsibly by being invested to help make you more money over a longer period of time or re invested into educating yourselves or other young natives to give them the opportunity to be lifted out of the reservation.
I can only hope after all the outrage of my comments subside that even just 1 native can understand what i have said and decides to break the cycle ……all of life’s greatest and most worthwhile journeys start with a single step in the right direction ..
My sincere apologies to those offended by my comments my intention was that or respect and honesty and was never meant to intentionally offend or insult in any way
Sorry for your loss this isnt enough interest should go to who it’s meant for the survivors there are multiple home and abused in care suits as well.i wish you the best
The longer this goes the worse it is, people are having to re-live the horrors and atrocities of being taken,… the abuse because we have to verify that this happened to us, it’s painstakingly slow to go through everything that happened to us, reliving it again, I have gone through my story many times to heal and still it brings so much sorrow and sadness,…and anger,…..so much anger sometimes that I was so helpless and so alone,…. I was a little child,….
We still need to heal ourselves and recover from this,… but this process needs to get moving regardless of COVID,… there are ways in his day and age to get necessary paperwork to and from, this is “essential” , the government hasn’t stopped working, law firms are still working,…
This needs to be expedited as soon as possible,…no more unnecessary delays.
I understand that they are taking their sweet time to complete the process. In the meantime the money being held up is collecting interest which will be given to a foundation that I have no use for. Since the judge decided to stop denying applications he should also stop giving the intrest on our money to a useless foundation and instead divide it among the survivors.
c ra has no problem charging interest on money owed to them alfra
They promised to pay everyone out before the end of 2020. What a pile of BS, wish politicians and bureaucrats could keep their word…
My claim was submitted in December 2018. Way before the pandemic. There’s no reason why they should be stalling.
I’m a survivor if that’s what they want to call that… maybe 50,000… like what is that… that isn’t anything… i used to make 1500 a night escort. Probably did that because I was raped beat molested all my life thinking that was normal. My brother and I were in foster care until I was almost 8 him 9… then brought down to the states…woooh… my brother didn’t get to be recognized as Native American… my brother whom I traveled this gruesome journey with hung himself 2 yrs ago.. These rag heads recieve homes vehicles, money up the u know what… so 50.. it’s the biggest battle I have to do is stay alive… alive for what for Christ sake I didn’t even know I was native til my 20’s
I don’t find it right that some people are not approved cause of the length,or shortage of length of placement. My foster care has left me with alot of mental and struggles accepting who I am and where I come from. I’ve tried committing suicide, on medication, therapy…all because I don’t like who I am and the people I come from. I lost my whole identity and cannot interact with not only my people, but people in general. I isolate myself and consider myself a lost woman . I just wanted people to know it doesn’t matter if you are in are for 2 or 5 years.
I’m a child of a British Home Child scheme. She came to Canada around the 50’s, as I’m 66, born in 54. I was born in an orphanage, transferred to another one, was a victim of MKUltra, have D.I.D. as a result. My husband is metes, same orphanage until he was ‘adopted’ . We’re both in the class-action concerning The Grey Nuns and the Duplissis kidnappings. Our case is being ‘handled’ in Quebec city and it keeps being delayed by this virus issue. What are our chances of justice?