Ottawa to appeal Federal Court ruling on Indigenous child welfare | CBC News

In 2016, the tribunal found the federal government discriminated against First Nations children by underfunding the on-reserve child welfare system.

It said Canada paid little attention to the consequences of removing First Nations children from their homes, resulting in “trauma and harm to the highest degree causing pain and suffering.”

In 2019, the tribunal ordered Ottawa to pay $40,000 — the maximum allowed under the Canadian Human Rights Act — to each child in the on-reserve child welfare system from at least Jan. 1, 2006, to a date to be determined by the tribunal.

It said the parents and grandparents of those children (depending on who was the primary guardian at the time) would also be eligible for compensation, as long as children weren’t taken away because of abuse.

The tribunal also directed the federal government to pay $40,000 to each First Nations child, along with their primary guardian, who was denied services or forced to leave home to access services covered by the policy known as Jordan’s Principle.

That policy states that the needs of a First Nations child requiring a government service take precedence over jurisdictional disputes over who should pay for it.

The Jordan’s Principle portion of the order covers the period from Dec. 12, 2007 — when the House of Commons adopted Jordan’s Principle — to Nov. 2, 2017, when the tribunal ordered Canada to change its definition of Jordan’s Principle and review previously denied requests.

The order also states compensation must be paid to the estates of deceased individuals who would have been eligible for compensation.

Some estimates place the number of potentially affected children at about 50,000, with the largest numbers in the Prairies and British Columbia. The ruling also covers First Nation children in Yukon.