Tens of thousands of Indigenous people won’t receive long overdue compensation because of a jurisdictional power play
For a government committed to reconciliation, it was a counterintuitive move, but successive Canadian governments have resisted the CHRT’s efforts to make financial awards in social justice cases.The NP Comment newsletter from columnist Colby Cosh and NP Comment editors tackles the important topics with boldness, verve and wit. Get NP Platformed delivered to your inbox weekdays by 4 p.m. ET.By clicking on the sign up button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.
For another, with an election looming, the NDP’s Jagmeet Singh was turning the screw in Parliament, urging the Trudeau government to “stop fighting Indigenous kids in court.” The government argued that systemic discrimination required a systemic response and pointed out it had doubled the budget for agencies responsible for child-and-family services to $1.2 billion a year . This is the basis for a separate $20-billion deal to fix the system that was not affected by the CHRT decision this week.Article content
In baffling fashion, a Federal Court judge ignored the evidentiary gap and said last September that Canada had not succeeded in establishing the compensation decision as unreasonable.Article content That is not what it got this week. The CHRT said that the agreement does not include all the victims covered in the tribunal’s order, including an indeterminate number of children who were removed and placed in non-federally funded placements and the estates of deceased parents. .Article content