B.C. judge overturns 'unprecedented' human rights decision

A decision awarding $150,000 in damages for discrimination to an Indigenous mom whose children were taken from her and put in foster care has been overturned by a B.C. judge.

A decision awarding $150,000 in damages for discrimination to an Indigenous mom whose children were taken from her and put in foster care has been overturned by a B.C. judge.

Justice Geoffrey Gomery said the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal's decision should be set aside due to "legal errors and procedural unfairness." He also found that the tribunal did have jurisdiction to decide the complaint and ordered a new hearing.

"(The mother) may yet be entitled to a remedy based on a correct legal analysis," he concluded in Monday's ruling. 

But Jonathan Blair, a lawyer representing the mother in the judicial review, said the decision is not only "unfortunate and disappointing," but that there are "many grounds for appeal."

Blair, who is with the Community Legal Assistance Society, did not say if the mother plans to appeal or on what grounds, but did outline a number of issues with the judge's decision, including what he described as a "regressive understanding of human rights and equality."

B.C.'s Human Rights Tribunal decided the case in December of 2022, calling it an "unprecedented complaint."

The mother, referred to only as R.R., brought the complaint against Vancouver Aboriginal Child and Family Services Society after her four children were apprehended and put into foster care, where they remained for more than two years.