Graves of First Nations children at residential schools found

NorthReport wrote:

Why is it that the Catholic Church is untouchable in all of this? Why is such a sick institution allowed to run some of our schools and get tax exemptions, and be involved in the health care system, the 2 biggest departments of any provincial government in Canada.

I'm not letting the Catholic Church off for its massive failure with regards to residential schools. After all, I started this thread. However, why leave out the other Christian religions, which ran many of the residential schools or the federal government which was instrumental in setting this system up? I am well aware of the problems created by the Catholic Church here and abroad, and particularly in Ireland because of my ancestry where the babies of unwed mothers were taken from them, mistreated and often died, as in the residential schools. But none of the other religions treated indigenous people and their culture with respect and in fact were often involved in abuse. The Catholic Church had a bigger problem because it ran more residential schools but the same core ideology of civilizing the natives ran the other Christian schools as well. 

Today there will be a vote on the NDP opposition motion put forward last Thursday that the Trudeau Liberal government do more than utter platitudes about the horrors of the residential school system that was created and maintained by the federal government. Instead of just words, the motion calls for action in five areas, including a report back to Parliament within ten days on what it has done. One demand is that the Trudeau government stop appealing decisions blocking payments to indigenous children and their families who attended residential schools that it has engendered over its six years in power and that have been going on overall since 2007. The Trudeau government appeal of this decision is going to court once again in just two weeks, making this motion extremely timely.

Below is a summary of what the motion demands the Liberals do: 

(1) end the Liberal government appeals of a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruling ordering Ottawa to pay $40,000 each to some 50,000 First Nations children separated from their families by a chronically underfunded child-welfare system.

(2) end the Trudeau government, that has spent $3.2 million in court, fighting the St. Anne's residential school survivors seeking redress for their suffering

(3) fulfill all of the Truth and Reconciliation recommendations, which, so far, have only had a tiny fraction completed, despite the Liberals  promising to do so for six years

(4) provide support for the families of residential school attendees that have been further traumatized by the revelation of the 215 unmarked graves at the Kamloops residential school

(5) report back in ten days on what actions they have taken to fulfill these demands.

While Trudeau Liberals make statements of condolence and help to indigenous Canadians, the Liberal government lawyers continue fighting any settlements in the courts. The Liberal government has spent $3.2 million on lawyers in order to oppose  St. Anne's residential school in northern Ontario survivors seeking redress for their suffering, some of whom were given shocks in an electric chair .

St. Anne’s Indian Residential School was a Canadian Indian Residential School[1] that operated from 1902 to 1976. While it was in operation, the school took Cree students from the Fort Albany First Nation and area. Former students of the school have reported experiencing physical, psychological, and sexual abuse while attending the school. ...

Many former students of St. Anne's describe experiencing physical, psychological and sexual abuse while at the school. Physical abuse came in many different forms including: poor living conditions, and corporal punishments for speaking your traditional language. St. Anne's survivor Edmund Metatawabin claimed the school used an electric chair "for punishment and sport" in the book Up Ghost River. ...

As of 2020, the Canadian Government had spent 3.2 Million dollars ($3,231,000) in legal fees against the survivors of St. Anne's residential school. On November 2nd, 2020, the Court of Appeal ruled that the case concerning whether Canadian Government was trying to hide the sexual and physical abuse that occoured at St. Anne’s Indian Residential School would stay in Ontario.

The lasting impacts of residential schools also includes post traumatic stress disorder[16] and a heightened rate of disability among Indigenous peoples compared to non-Indigenous peoples.[17] Abuse suffered in residential schools continue to impact the mental health of Indigenous communities.[18] Indigenous peoples also experience a heightened rate of disability due to heightened “rates of injury, accident, violence, self-destructive or suicidal behaviour and illness.”[19] These heightened statistics are a result of the negative health impacts of residential schools for the survivors and the subsequent generations in the family. Another lasting impact from the St.Anne's Residential Schools is the re-victimization that was a result of the decade long court battle, where survivors claims were hidden and their voices were silenced.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Anne%27s_Indian_Residential_School

On Power and Politics today, Cindy Blackstock,  who has been fighting for indigenous  children to receive compensation of $40,000 a child ($10 billion in total) for victims of Canada’s wilfully underfunded child welfare since bringing the case to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal  in 2007 spoke out about  the Trudeau Liberals blocking a resolution of the problem. She noted that despite spending $9 million on lawyers fighting the case and despite 19 non-compliance orders from the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal and courts all the way up to and including the Supreme Court, the Trudeau government is once again going to court next week fight these rulings. The Trudeau government "claims it has “no duty to compensate” thousands of First Nations families and children who suffered or died waiting for essential services Ottawa is legally obligated to provide under what’s now known as Jordan’s Principle."

In other words, the Trudeau Liberal government is very good  at once again using pious words to cover up the fact it opposes solving these injustices and continuing to delay any action on the issue after 14 years. What has he done? Ordered flags flown at half-mast over the discovery of the graves of 215 First Nations children. How much did that cost? However, overall this fits right in with his strategy of dealing with First Nations problems. In fact, it was very Trudeau of him. 

Canada claims it has “no duty to compensate” thousands of First Nations families and children who suffered or died waiting for essential services Ottawa is legally obligated to provide under what’s now known as Jordan’s Principle.

Ottawa plans to fight in court against these families because their claims date to before 2007, arguing Canada isn’t legally liable for their suffering because Jordan’s Principle didn’t exist yet, according to court documents.

“The Crown maintains that Jordan’s Principle did not become [legally] actionable until Parliament passed a resolution formally recognizing it on Dec. 12, 2007, and that the Jordan’s Principle class members whose claims arose before that time cannot succeed,” wrote lawyers representing victims and families on April 9.

“The Crown wishes to advance its defence in court in respect of those claims.”

The families and now adult children are part of a national class-action lawsuit originally filed in 2019 by Xavier Moushoom and soon after joined by Jeremy Meawasige, the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) and several others.

The suit seeks $10 billion for victims of Canada’s wilfully underfunded child welfare system and refusal to implement Jordan’s Principle between 1991 (cutoff for the ’60s Scoop class action) and now. ...

Last September, Ottawa announced it would not fight certification, which is a procedural hearing that allows a lawsuit to proceed in group form.

But documents filed later reveal the Crown had, in fact, “conditioned its consent” and would only certify if the Jordan’s Principle victims from between 1991 and 2007 were removed.

The lawyers vehemently disagreed, arguing that the federal government always had a legal responsibility under the charter to fund essential services for First Nations kids living on reserves.

Jordan’s Principle, they argued, just gave a name to a rule that always existed.

But, counsel explained, Ottawa can’t be forced to mediate claims it wishes to fight, so the lawyers proposed splitting the lawsuit into two.

Under this plan, the child welfare victims and some Jordan’s Principle victims would enter mediated settlement talks, while the others would eventually “have their day in court” against Canada.

They have selected another lead plaintiff who is “motivated to vigorously advance” the remaining claims in court.

“The alternative — holding up resolution until every disputed issue has been fully and finally litigated — is harmful to class members and inconsistent with the goal of reconciliation,” the attorneys explained. “There is no suggestion that the Crown is acting in bad faith in taking this position.” ...

But at least one person, the NDP’s Charlie Angus, disagrees. The northern Ontario MP called the government’s position “a perfect example of the toxic bad faith by which the Trudeau government have responded to their obligations to deal with systemic discrimination against Indigenous children.” Angus has watched the same issues wind through the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal over the last 14 years. While complicated legally, Angus said matter is simple at heart.

“The federal government knowingly discriminated systemically and destroyed the lives of thousands of Indigenous youth. They will use legal technicalities to continue to deny these people access to justice,” he said. “This is what they’ve done with the residential school survivors from St. Anne’s. This is what they’ve done time and time again with the human rights tribunal. It has to stop. Canadians expect the government to do the right thing, right now.”

On June 3, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh tabled an opposition motion in the House of Commons demanding the Liberals halt court battles against Indigenous families, children and survivors.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is under pressure from opposition and First Nations leaders to respond to the confirmation of a mass grave’s existence — reportedly containing remains of 215 children — at a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.

Trudeau has ordered flags flown at half-mast and his government made $27 million from 2019 available for communities who also wish to search former residential school grounds in their territories.

But the NDP, Conservatives, Bloc Québécois and Greens all agree it’s not enough.

“They lowered the flag,” Angus remarked. “I would say lower the flag and call off your lawyers. That’s justice. That’s what Canadians expect to make this right.”

https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/ottawa-claims-no-duty-to-compensat...

The Trudeau government has a reached proposed settlement with day schoolers (who did not stay overnight) in the residential schools, offering a measly $10,000 per student to people who have been fighting for justice against the Harper and Trudeau governments for 14 years, and, unsurprisingly, worn down by the agonizingly long process and the poverty they often find themselves, in no small measure from the education and abuse they suffered in residential schools. The settlement does not include those who stayed overnight in the residential schools. 

"The settlement does not include an explicit admission of wrongdoing by the government." Gee, after lecturing the Catholic Church on its need to apologize to indigenous people for their treatment of indigenous people, Trudeau sees no reason to do so for himself and the Canadian government because like the Catholic Church, they fear an admission of guilt would increase payouts. You never know though, if Trudeau figures he needs to apologize to look good in the upcoming election, I could see him doing that. I don't think it was a coincidence Trudeau offered this settlement to make him look good after 14 years of refusing to settle the court case, as the residential schools and their history of abuse and destruction of native culture once again grabs the public's attention.

However, the Trudeau government continues to fight indigenous peoples in other court cases concerning residential schools (1) The Liberal government has spent $3.2 million on lawyers in order to oppose  St. Anne's residential school in northern Ontario survivors seeking redress for their suffering, some of whom were given shocks in an electric chair (see post #71 for more details) . (2) In another lawsuit involving First Nations children who attended Kamloops Residential School seek reparations from the federal government for the impact residential schools had on Indigenous nations — fracturing communities, suppressing cultures and erasing languages.  105 First Nations have signed onto the lawsuit. The Trudeau Liberals are denying any legal responsibility for damage to First Nations cultures from removing indigenous children from their families and culture. Once again Trudeau's pious words are contradicted by his and the Liberals actions.  (see post #72 for more details). (3) Cindy Blackstock,  who has been fighting for indigenous  children to receive compensation of $40,000 a child ($10 billion in total) for victims of Canada’s wilfully underfunded child welfare since bringing the case to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal  in 2007 spoke out about  the Trudeau Liberals blocking a resolution of the problem. She noted that despite spending $9 million on lawyers fighting the case and despite 19 non-compliance orders from the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal and courts all the way up to and including the Supreme Court, the Trudeau government is once again going to court on Monday of next week fight these rulings. The Trudeau government "claims it has “no duty to compensate” thousands of First Nations families and children who suffered or died waiting for essential services Ottawa is legally obligated to provide under what’s now known as Jordan’s Principle." (see post #73 for details).

Canada has reached a proposed settlement with a group of indigenous survivors of the now-defunct residential schools for the abuse they suffered, a federal minister said on Wednesday, ending a 14-year fight for justice.

The settlement comes as the government is scrambling to deal with a national outcry after the remains of 215 indigenous children were discovered at a former residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia. The government has been under pressure to stop legally opposing indigenous people's requests for compensationand acknowledgement in court following the discovery. 

Under the latest agreement, the government will provide C$10,000 ($8,259.00) to each survivor involved in the class action lawsuit and create a C$50 million indigenous-led nonprofit to support wellbeing and cultural learning.

The settlement does not include an explicit admission of wrongdoing by the government. ...

The estimated 12,000 to 20,000 survivors in the lawsuit attended residential schools during the day and went home at night. Because of this, they were not included in a previous settlement for residential school survivors. ...

CANADA IS A "REPEAT OFFENDER"

Several plaintiffs spoke at the conference, describing the pain the residential schools and the years-long lawsuit brought them. "This has been a really long process, 14 years, returning to court, regurgitating trauma," Charlotte Gilbert, a representative for the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit, said.

A separate class action, still ongoing, deals with residential schools' cultural damage and involves 105 indigenous bands.

"No amount of compensation can change the legacy of residential schools," Diena Jules, a survivor of the schools, said. "Nothing can restore us to being whole."

The government remains embroiled in several ongoing lawsuits involving indigenous people in Canada. A Canadian Human Rights Tribunal case involving discrimination through the systemic under-funding of child and family services against indigenous children - resulting in a disproportionate number of indigenous children in foster care - has a hearing next week.

The Canadian government has admitted its child and family services funding system "was broken and needed immediate and substantial reform." But in its most recent filings it argued the tribunal was the wrong venue for this dispute and that individual compensation was not appropriate in this instance.

"It's a really dangerous argument," said Cindy Blackstock, a member of the Gitxsan nation and executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, which brought the legal action. ...

https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/canada-proposes-to-settle-indigenous-law...

NorthReport wrote:

https://www.fairviewpost.com/news/pompous-posturing-calgary-bishop-fred-...

Both the Catholic Church and Trudeau are deflecting blame onto each other.

The NDP put forward a motion to have the residential schools policy recognized as an act of genocide two days ago. Unfortunately, the motion failed. The Truth and Reconcilation Commission in 2015 called it a cultural genocide.

 New Democrats are calling on the federal government to recognize the residential schools policy pursued by Canada for over a century as genocide against Indigenous Peoples.

In a motion to be tabled in the House of Commonson Thursday, NDP MP Leah Gazan is asking fellow lawmakers to unanimously acknowledge the institutions' history as the deliberate, systematic destruction of a cultural group.

"There is no reconciliation without truth. And what happened in residential school was clearly an act of genocide, with impacts that reverberate (in) our families’ community today," said Gazan, MP for Winnipeg Centre and a member of the Wood Mountain Lakota Nation in Saskatchewan. "In honour of all the children who never returned home, in honour of all the mothers and fathers and families that were left to suffer in grief, we must end the debate."

Gazan's demand comes in response to last month's news that ground-penetrating radar detected what are believed to be the remains of 215 children at a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.

The government-sponsored, church-run institutions operated in Canada for more than 110 years and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission ruled in 2015 they constituted a "cultural genocide."

Gazan questioned the sufficiency of the commission's determination, laid out in a report that followed seven years of hearings and testimony from thousands of witnesses.

"There is no legal definition in international law for cultural genocide. What happened at the residential schools was genocide, full stop," she said, citing the United Nations convention against genocide.

Genocide comprises any one of the criteria laid out in the 1948 convention's definition, and Gazan said Canada's residential schools policy meets all five: killing members of a group, causing them serious physical or mental harm, placing them under conditions to destroy them, imposing measures to prevent births or forcibly transferring children to another group. ...

At a news conference with Gazan on Wednesday morning, Grand Chief Arlen Dumas of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs said denying an act of genocide would "belittle the history and the reality" of survivors of schools that continued to open into the 1970s. "Residential school is not a historic thing that happened hundreds of years ago. It happened just yesterday," he said. "My younger siblings attended residential school."

Christian churches and the federal government launched the boarding schools in the 1880s and kept them going for more than a century, seeking to convert and assimilate Indigenous children, who suffered widespread physical and sexual abuse at the institutions. Thousands died in them. The last one closed in Punnichy, Sask., in 1996.

A third-generation survivor, Dumas said churches also need to atone for their role. "I am very disappointed with the stance of the church for their silence." ...

"Old wounds opened up. Our nation woke up," said Gerry Shingoose, an elder and survivor who attended the Muscowequan Residential School in Saskatchewan for a decade starting in the early 1960s. I ask that each one of you bring that love forward to the survivors and their families, because when we were in school we never received that love. We received hate," she said. "And no child should ever experience that."

https://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/news/ndp-calls-on-ottawa-to-recognize-r...

Here is an article on what happened when NDP MP Leah Gazan put forward a motion to have the residential schools policy recognized as an act of genocide. The motion was defeated because it did not receive unanimous consent to stand, with who blocked it not entirely clear although Gazan said one opponent to dealing with the motion was Conservative MP John Barlow who represents the Foothills riding in Alberta. 

An NDP motion calling on the federal government to recognize the residential schools policy pursued by Canada for over a century as genocide against Indigenous Peoples was unsuccessful.

NDP MP Leah Gazan asked fellow lawmakers to unanimously acknowledge the institutions' history as the deliberate, systematic destruction of a cultural group.

The motion did not receive unanimous consent, and therefore was not adopted by the House of Commons. 

It was not immediately clear which parties or MPs disagreed with allowing the motion to stand, as a recorded vote is not held for motions that require unanimous consent to be adopted. 

In a tweet published this afternoon, Gazan says it was Conservative MP John Barlow who denied consent for the motion, and she criticized the Conservative party.

When asked about whether she would support the motion Wednesday, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett pointed out the prime minister has acknowledged the 2019 finding of the National Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls that "what happened amounts to genocide."

https://www.halifaxtoday.ca/national-news/ndp-motion-to-see-commons-reco...

NDP MP Leah Gazan put forward a motion to have the residential schools policy recognized as an act of genocide, but it did not receive unanimous consent to proceed. Gazan will be speaking about indigenous issues on a panel on Thursday June 17th along with former MP Libby Davies and  Cindy Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, who brought the successfull case to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal and Supreme Court of Canada that First Nations children must have access to services, but has been blocked by the Harper and Trudeau governments for 14 years. You can register below. 

rabble.ca’s national live-politics panel, Off The Hill, returns on Thursday, June 17th with a focus on reconciliation and Land Back with host Libby Davies and guests Leah Gazan, MP for Winnipeg Centre, Karl Nerenberg, rabble.ca politics reporter, and Cindy Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society.  

Register now to join this free event via Zoom and to interact and share your comments and questions with the panelists.  ...

It is hard not to be cynical when the Trudeau government expresses sympathy for the children and their families while continuing to appeal the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal decision ordering Ottawa to compensate approximately 50,000 First Nations children who were unnecessarily placed in child welfare and separated from their families as well.

The Liberal government is also currently fighting a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal decision that would widen the scope of Jordan’s Principle, which states First Nations children must have access to services without jurisdictional issues creating delays. 

https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/rabblecas-staff-blog/2021/06/join-leah-...

In another example of the Trudeau Liberals failing to deal fairly with First Nations, a court case began Monday in Federal Court with "Lawyers arguing on behalf of First Nations children and youth unnecessarily taken from their families by an underfunded and discriminatory child-welfare system say Canada harmed these kids, but is "shamefully" trying to avoid paying for its wrongs.", involving "discriminating against Indigenous children living on-reserve not properly funding child and family services. As a result, children were sent away from their homes, families and reserves because if they lived off-reserve, they would be covered by better-funded provincial systems."

But even while federal officials insist they believe these children should be compensated, their lawyers argue the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal's decision was based on "seriously flawed reasoning" when it awarded $40,000 to each Indigenous child and their parents and grandparents after being separated by the foster system.

Opposing arguments were heard in Federal Court Monday on the first of five days of hearings in the case, which are taking place virtually due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The federal government's lawyer, Robert Frater, told Federal Court Justice Paul Favel the government contends the tribunal's award was far too broad and sweeping. Frater argues the tribunal did not have the authority to award individual damages because it did not hear any evidence or testimony from children or their families to justify individual compensation. ...

But Sarah Clarke, one of a team of lawyers representing the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, which filed the original complaint over 14 years ago, focused her arguments on the children at the heart of the case and on policies and practices the tribunal has ruled were highly discriminatory -- an argument Ottawa does not contest.

In a 2016 CHRT ruling on the merits of the case, the tribunal noted that Canada's funding formula for Indigenous child-welfare "provided an incentive to remove children from their homes as a first resort rather than a last resort," Clarke said.

Agencies did not allow workers to deliver actual services based on needs of First Nations families and were provided with insufficient funding to do their work, the CHRT found in 2016.

"While this underfunding has massive and complicated impacts on the entire system, which again the tribunal did an excellent job of articulating, at the level of the child ΓǪ Canada's discriminatory conduct meant that they were denied services that could have kept them safely at home," Clarke told the court. "Instead, they were removed and they were never given that chance."

Clarke argues it was the systemic discrimination of the policies and practices themselves, based on the fact these children were of a different race, that warranted the tribunal's award -- not the individual harms suffered by each child.

The tribunal's September 2019 ruling said Ottawa "wilfully and recklessly" discriminated against Indigenous children living on-reserve by not properly funding child and family services. As a result, children were sent away from their homes, families and reserves because if they lived off-reserve, they would be covered by better-funded provincial systems. Others were removed from their families because authorities couldn't provide supports to help keep them together.

Another of Ottawa's arguments is that the human-rights tribunal "erred in law" by "improperly" turning the case into a class action by awarding individual compensation. Frater argues the tribunal did not have the authority to award individual damages.

Clarke disputes this, saying the tribunal's ruling was grounded in solid legal principles and human rights law. "There is no legal foundation or policy reason to deny the tribunal's jurisdiction to award compensation to the children in this case. Canada's arguments in this regard are not about advancing the rights of First Nations children, or protecting the rights of victims," she said. "Instead, these arguments reflect a shameful strategy aimed at saving money at the expense of First Nations children and families across the country."

Ottawa instead wants to compensate these children and their families through a settlement in two separate but related class-action lawsuits, which Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller says could lead to higher compensation paid to those who suffered the greatest harms.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said the human rights tribunal's rulings are a bare minimum when it comes to rectifying the damages inflicted on Indigenous children. "The fact that the Liberal government wants to fight the bare minimum, wants to spend millions of dollars fighting a decision from one of the highest tribunals respecting human rights in Canada, really shows their lack of commitment," he told reporters in Ottawa Monday. He is calling on to government comply with the tribunal's orders, and if additional damages are warranted -- as Ottawa has argued -- the government can cover them later.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/canada-trying-to-save-money-at-the-expense...

Below is more on the Trudeau Liberal's controversial legal challenge of a pair of  two Canadian Human Rights Tribunal rulings rulings involving First Nations children torn from their families by a chronically underfunded childcare system as the court case proceeds. The Liberals want to have the ruling sent to a different panel for "reevaluation", thereby delaying any settlement for a significantly longer period than the 14 years the federal government has fought compensation. 

The federal government is poised to argue against two Canadian Human Rights Tribunal rulings. The first awarded what amounts to billions of dollars in compensation to First Nations children inappropriately taken away from their parents after 2006, and to their parents and grandparents. The second ruling expands Jordan's Principle to children who live off-reserve or who are not registered under the Indian Act....

Jordan's Principle is a rule stating that when different levels of government disagree about who's responsible for providing services to First Nations children, they must help a child in need first and argue over the bills later. It was named after Jordan River Anderson, a boy from Norway House Cree Nation in Manitoba who died in hospital while the Manitoba and federal governments argued for five years over which who should pay for his care in a special home.

Cindy Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, which filed the original human rights complaint over 14 years ago, says the case is fundamentally about addressing harms suffered by Indigenous children who have faced systemic discrimination by Canadian child welfare policies and practices.

"Frankly it disgusts me as a citizen to think that the government is spending taxpayer money and energy fighting against little kids that they have been found to be racially discriminating against in ways that harm them, separate them from their families and, in some cases, contribute to their death," Blackstock said. ...

In its arguments against the broadening of Jordan's Principle, the federal government argues the tribunal's ruling "transformed" Jordan's Principle from a resolution, passed in the House of Commons aimed at ensuring jurisdictional wrangling did not impact the health of First Nations children, into a legal rule to provide services to a far broader group.

Blackstock, and the Caring Society's legal factums, accuse Canada of a "colonialist" attempt to control the identity of Indigenous Peoples using the "racist" Indian Act to define status.

"The Indian Act is the same piece of legislation that forced children into residential schools and it's still on the books today," Blackstock said in an interview.

"No other child in this country has to go through a government litmus test to determine their racial identity and then be issued a card or not."

A large group of Indigenous organizations, First Nations and human rights groups have joined the Caring Society and the human rights tribunal in arguing against Ottawa's attempt to have the tribunal's ruling set aside.

Ottawa is also asking the Federal Court to send the rulings back to a differently constituted panel for re-evaluation due to what it believes was a "lack of procedural fairness" from the 2019 panel that issued the ruling for damages to be paid.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/indigenous-child-welfare-battle-heads-to...