Canadian Government Makes $40B Agreement to Compensate First Nations Children

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First Nations Children Compensation Overview:

• Who: Representatives for First Nations children have been in a 15-year fight with the Canadian government to get compensation for kids who were underfunded in the welfare system.
• What: The government finally announced Jan. 4 it would pay C$20 billion to compensate First Nations kids and pay another C$20 billion to reform the child welfare system.
• Where: Canada

Canada has finally agreed to compensate First Nations children who were taken from their families and put into the underfunded child welfare system, after 15 years of fighting a complaint on the issue. 

On Jan. 4, the Canadian government announced it had made two agreements totalling C$40 billion ($31.5 billion) to compensate First Nations children and to reform the system that removed them from their parents and deprived them of services they needed, Metro reported.

The agreements include C$20 billion for potentially hundreds of thousands of First Nations children who were removed from their families and placed in an underfunded child welfare system. 

Another C$20 billion is to reform the system over the next five years “to ensure that the discrimination found by the CHRT never repeats itself,” the government said in a press release. 

The agreements come almost 15 years after the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society first brought forward a human rights complaint against the government. 

Canadian Human Rights Tribunal Found System Racist

Lawyer Cindy Blackstock filed the original complaint in 2007 along with the Assembly of First Nations.

The lawsuit led to a 2019 Canadian Human Rights Tribunal decision that found the federal government discriminated against First Nations children by underfunding a racist on-reserve child welfare system, and not paying attention to the harm caused by separating families, CBC reports.

It said the practice led to “trauma and harm to the highest degree, causing pain and suffering” and ordered Ottawa to pay $40,000 to each child affected by the system from Jan. 1, 2006. 

It is estimated about 50,000 children could have been affected. Funding aimed at reform and preventive services should start flowing in April, Blackstock told Metro.

The news comes as the government also faces multiple class action lawsuits for the underfunding of the child welfare system. 

In 2020, two class action lawsuits challenging the funding of First Nations child welfare services and children’s health services were certified.

Ottawa has reportedly agreed to mediation to reach a potential settlement of the class action lawsuits, which also seek billions of dollars in compensation for First Nations children who were impacted by the on-reserve child welfare system and for children who were denied services the federal government was reportedly obligated to provide under Jordan’s Principle.

According to Jordan’s Principle, First Nations children on reserves who need vital social services should not have their access to such services delayed because the governments cannot agree on who is responsible for paying for them.

What do you think of this compensation deal? Let us know in the comments! 

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