Mom urges chiefs to vote in favour of landmark $47.8B child welfare reform deal

The representative plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against Canada are urging First Nations chiefs to accept a landmark $47.8-billion child welfare reform deal.

The deal was struck in July between Canada, the Chiefs of Ontario, Nishnawbe Aski Nation and the Assembly of First Nations after a nearly two-decade legal fight over the federal government’s underfunding of on-reserve child welfare services.

The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal said that was discriminatory and tasked Canada with coming to an agreement with First Nations to reform the system, along with compensating children who were torn from their families and put in foster care.

Chiefs are in Calgary this week for an Assembly of First Nations gathering where they are set to vote on the agreement, but dozens of them have raised concerns about how it will work.

One representative plaintiff in the class-action for Jordan’s Principle families, Carolyn Buffalo, is a mother from Montana First Nation in Maskwacis, Alta.

Speaking through tears, Buffalo says she thinks chiefs will vote down the deal she and others have worked on for years in an attempt to stop Canada’s discrimination against First Nations children, and that kids will be left without protection if it’s rejected.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.