Federal Court approves $23B for First Nations child welfare settlement
Global News
The settlement comes more than 15 years after Indigenous groups launched a human rights complaint that sparked a years-long legal battle with Ottawa.
A Federal Court judge has verbally approved a landmark $23-billion settlement that will see Ottawa compensate more than 300,000 First Nations children and their families over chronic underfunding of on-reserve child-welfare services.
The Assembly of First Nations and the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society first launched a human rights complaint in 2007.
In 2016, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal called the federal government’s treatment of First Nations child welfare “willful and reckless.”
It found First Nations are adversely impacted by the services provided by the government and, in some cases, denied services as a result of the government’s involvement.
Ottawa had offered to spend $20 billion to reform the child-welfare system and another $20 billion on compensation last year, but the tribunal raised concerns that not all eligible claimants would receive compensation.
Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu says she’s happy the settlement has been approved, and she hopes there will be peace for the litigants.
Hajdu said before the ruling that the distribution of cheques out of the settlement “will be designed by Indigenous people for Indigenous people,” and therefore could not say when beneficiaries will see that money.
“I know (the partners I met with yesterday) are very eager to have a process that’s fair, that’s trauma-informed, and that’s as rapid as possible,” she told reporters in Ottawa Tuesday.