Federal Court of Canada. Image credit: @FedCourt_CAN_en
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Ottawa/CMEDIA: A landmark $23-billion settlement to compensate more than 300,000 First Nations children and their families for chronic underfunding of on-reserve child-welfare services has reportedly been approved verbally by a Federal Court judge.
A human-rights complaint was first launched by the Assembly of First Nations and the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society in 2007.
The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal found the government’s involvement resulted in both adversely impacting the services provided to First Nations, and in some cases, being denied.
The tribunal raised concerns that Ottawa’s earlier offer to spend $20 billion to reform the child-welfare system and another $20 billion on compensation last year was not available to all eligible claimants.
Following the settlement of the approval, Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu was happy and hopes there will be peace for the litigants.
