‘Faint hope’: Court ruling a step towards keeping more Indigenous kids out of foster care
Global News
If the government implements the rulings, advocates say it could help to disrupt a vicious cycle of child apprehensions that are the result of this underfunding of services.
A recent court ruling in favour of Indigenous children is an important step forward to keeping those kids out of the foster care system, advocates say.
In a judgment Wednesday, the Federal Court dismissed Ottawa’s attempts to appeal two rulings related to providing services and compensation to First Nations children.
“I am just so overjoyed that the children won again,” said Cindy Blackstock, who runs the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society (Caring Society).
“What the federal court said is that Canada’s failure to observe those tribunal rulings was wrong and they have to obey.”
In September 2019, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled that the federal government hadn’t adequately funded child and family services — and that this lack of funding amounted to it “wilfully and recklessly” discriminating against Indigenous children living on reserve.
In a bid to achieve some redress for this, the tribunal ordered Ottawa to pay $40,000 each to roughly 50,000 First Nations children and their relatives. This was one of the two rulings the Liberal government was appealing.
The other appeal related to a ruling in November 2020 that expanded the scope of Jordan’s Principle — a rule that pledges to provide First Nations children with the services they need, when they need them, rather than first taking the time to sort out which level of government is responsible for the cost.
Should the government accept the court’s decision to reject their appeals and begin to implement the substance of both rulings, advocates say it could help to disrupt a vicious cycle of child apprehensions that are the result of this chronic underfunding of services.