Ottawa adds $3.4B to $20B First Nations child welfare compensation deal

The federal government is adding $3.4 billion to its $20 billion offer for First Nations child welfare compensation, says the Assembly of First Nations and the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada.

The organizations issued a press release Monday announcing the new $23.4 billion deal, which they say covers victims who were shortchanged by and excluded from the initial agreement finalized between Ottawa and the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) last year.

In 2016, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal found Ottawa discriminated against First Nations children by under-funding on-reserve child welfare services. The tribunal said Canada's actions led to "trauma and harm to the highest degree, causing pain and suffering," and ordered the government to compensate those affected.

The new agreement includes about 13,000 more children who were put in foster care placements that were not funded by Indigenous Services Canada, the estates of deceased parents and children, and caregivers denied essential services under a policy known as Jordan's Principle.

Under the renegotiated deal, each of these individuals is expected to receive $40,000 plus interest. 

In total, the deal covers approximately 300,000 First Nations children, youth and families on-reserve or in the Yukon who were discriminated against from 1991 on — a period 15 years longer than the one covered by the tribunal's order.

This development comes after the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal rejected Ottawa's initial agreement last fall since it did not compensate all victims covered under its human rights orders.

The move also follows mounting pressure from the Caring Society's executive director Cindy Blackstock and the AFN. 

They adopted a unified front at last December's special chiefs assembly in Ottawa after Blackstock raised concerns about the deal. 

Blackstock told CBC that this should be the final step in an intense legal battle that started in 2007 when she and the AFN filed a human rights complaint against Canada.

"Canadians have been really rallying around the point that we need to have justice for these children and we need to give them the fair compensation that they deserve," she said. "I'm not feeling that we've left anything major on the table."

The news was released just hours before the start of another AFN special chiefs meeting in the nation's capital.

Manitoba Regional Chief Cindy Woodhouse, the AFN's lead negotiator on the deal, said the addition of the 13,000 children acknowledges the harm done to them.

"My heart goes out and I think about those people," she said, adding that she hopes they'll "find peace."

Ashley Bach, who is a representative plaintiff for the removed child class in AFN's lawsuit against Ottawa, said the news that the deal is moving forward was "overwhelming."

"It sends a really strong and clear message to the government of Canada, but also the general population of Canadians ... that we're here, our lives matter," she said.

The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal must green-light the renegotiated agreement before it can be sent to the Federal Court for final approval.

Mary Teegee of Carrier Sekani Family Services said the deal was "a long time coming."

"We can breathe a little bit easier understanding that at least the pain and suffering for all the children and families have been validated and acknowledged," she said. "I think that's first and foremost really important in terms of reconciliation."

But Teegee said the prime minister also should issue an official apology to the children covered by the agreement.

"I think that's integral to everybody's healing," she said. "It's atrocities that have happened in Canada and there has to be acknowledgement, there has to be an apology."

Bach said an apology would be a historic and important step in the healing process for her and others.

"Younger generations are going to learn about this and they're going to know what happened wasn't OK," she said.

As part of the original agreement, Ottawa set aside an additional $20 billion for long-term reform of the on-reserve child welfare system. Blackstock said improvements to the system will be vital going forward.

"My biggest dream is that there's no compensation ever payable in the future because there's no victims to compensate," she said.