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Canada: Court overturns landmark settlement to compensate Indigenous children and their families



The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal found that the C$40 billion deal excluded some children. The money was to be used to compensate those improperly placed and to reform the child welfare system.


A Canadian court on Tuesday, October 25, rejected a landmark agreement that Ottawa was to pay C$40 billion to both compensate Indigenous children and their families who are discriminated against by the child welfare system, and reform it.



The agreement, equivalent to nearly 29.5 billion euros, was announced in 2021 to end years of litigation over the sums allocated by the federal government to child protection services for Indigenous populations – First Nations – compared to those offered to non-Indigenous children. It was the largest indemnification agreement in Canadian history.


Its rejection by the Canadian human rights tribunal "is disappointing for many First Nations people," Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu told reporters in Ottawa.





The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, according to officials citing a summary of the decision, found the agreement excluded some children and was not consistent with one of its 2019 decisions. It called on the government to pay compensation of C$40,000 to each of the thousands of First Nations children removed from their parents and placed in the child welfare system after 2006.


Disappointment among First Nations leaders


Half of the amount of the agreement was to be used to compensate for Indigenous children who had been removed from their parents and placed in the child welfare system, while the other half was to be used to reform the system over the next five years.




For some First Nations leaders, the court's decision will only delay these reforms and compensate nearly 300,000 children and their families. Despite making up less than 8% of children under the age of 14 in Canada, Indigenous children made up more than half of those in the child welfare system, according to a 2016 census.



The announcement of the agreement came in the midst of the country's introspection on the harm done to Inuit, Métis or First Nations (Dene, Mohawk, Ojibway, Cree and Algonquin ...).



Since May 2021, more than a thousand unmarked graves have been found at the sites of former Catholic residential schools for Indigenous people, highlighting a dark chapter in Canada's history and its policy of forced assimilation, considered since 2015 as a "cultural genocide". During a visit to Canada in July, Pope Francis asked for "forgiveness for the evil committed" against the country's indigenous people.


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