A decade of inaction on indigenous child welfare
TheStar.com – Opinion/Editorials – A year after the Human Rights Tribunal ruled that Ottawa was systematically discriminating against indigenous children, the government has done little about it.
Jan. 5, 2017. Editorial
Had Jordan Rivers Anderson not been a member of the Norway House First Nation, he would likely have spent a few of his five years living at home with his family. As it happened, however, this young boy, who suffered from a rare muscular disorder, was kept in limbo for years as Ottawa and Manitoba squabbled over which government should pay for his home care. He died in 2005, having spent his whole life in a Winnipeg hospital.
This tragic incident has become a symbol of systemic bias against indigenous children. Last January, the Human Rights Tribunal ruled that Ottawa discriminates against First Nations youth in the provision of social services and ordered the government to redress this injustice. It called on Ottawa to do two things: make an emergency investment to bridge the funding gap and start applying Jordan’s Principle, named after Anderson, which says that no child should be denied services due to jurisdictional disputes.
The Trudeau government welcomed the decision at the time and vowed to take action. But a year later, despite three compliance orders from the tribunal, Ottawa still appears to be in violation. The group that filed the original motion a decade ago and the three non-compliance motions last year has now filed yet another. Is this what Justin Trudeau meant when he promised a renewed nation-to-nation relationship?
On the question of money, there is little dispute that the government has failed – even, it seems, from the government itself. In October, the Liberals backed an NDP motion calling on Ottawa immediately to invest $155 million in child-welfare services to address the shortfall on reserves.
While welcome, the Liberal support was a bit strange. If the government agreed the investment was urgent, why did it take an opposition motion, months after the ruling, to force its hand? More troubling still, in the two months since the motion unanimously passed, no money appears to have been invested.
The new complaint, which was filed by the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada and the Assembly of First Nations, focuses on a more controversial question: whether Ottawa is correctly applying Jordan’s Principle.
The tribunal has been perfectly clear that the principle, which was adopted into law in 2007, applies to all First Nations children in all jurisdictional disputes. The department from which a service is first sought must provide that service; it can seek remuneration from other governments or departments later. Yet Ottawa has again and again tried to narrow the definition, claiming the principle applies only to children on reserves or living with a disability or dealing with a critical short-term condition. The new motion argues that Ottawa continues to violate the law.
The federal government spent $500,000 defending itself against these tribunal complaints last year. It lost every time. This year, it ought simply to do as the tribunal said. Invest the money necessary to provide indigenous children equal access to essential services. And ensure the law that bears Jordan River Anderson’s name becomes a tool for justice and reconciliation, not yet another symbol of Canada’s shameful failure.
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Tags: budget, featured, ideology, Indigenous, jurisdiction, rights, standard of living, youth
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