It’s the largest settlement in Canadian history, and possibly in the world. After a 15 year-long legal battle for indigenous children who were discriminated against, put in welfare care and mistreated, Canada has agreed in principle to compensate over 55,000 indigenous children taken from their families by force.
There are two agreements worth $40b in total (NZD $46b); $20 billion to compensate the thousands of families who have been victimised for decades, and another $20 billion towards a program reform of the First Nations Child and Family Services program.
Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller told media, “No amount of money can reverse the harms experienced by First Nations children, however, historic injustices require historic reparations.”
“For too long, the Government of Canada did not adequately fund or support the wellness of First Nations families and children,” Canada’s Minister of Indigenous Services Patty Hajdu said in the statement.
Lady Tureiti Moxon, a member of the Governance Group for the Māori-led inquiry into Oranga Tamariki says it’s the best thing that could’ve happened to any indigenous race in the whole world.
“The government has to take responsibility for the taonga, the pain, and the disconnection undermining the core of whānau, the foundations of what whānau is all about,” says Moxon.
She adds successive governments have been doing it not just in Canada but all over the world, and it’s a good precedent for Aotearoa to take the lead in ensuring that the harm that has been done to children by all the crowns institutions has to stop.
Sotos Class Actions lawyer David Sterns said the deal might be the largest settlement in the world.
“The enormity of this settlement is due to one reason and one reason only,” Sterns said, “and that is the sheer size and scope of the harm that was inflicted on the class members as a result of a cruel and discriminatory First Nations family and child welfare system.”
“It’s a good example of what we should be looking at in terms of kids who have been removed from their whānau forcibly without anyone knowing where they’ve been, where they’ve gone, and I think it’s time that our government recognised that,” says Moxon.
Like Aotearoa, Canada continues to struggle with the impact of colonisation and government policies that disproportionately affect indigenous people.
“First Nations across Canada have had to work very hard for this day to provide redress for monumental wrongs for First Nations children, wrongs fuelled by an inherently biased system,” says Cindy Woodhouse, AFN regional chief for Manitoba.