Canada's 'wilful and reckless' treatment of Indigenous children continues

This Opinion piece is by Andre Bear, a law student, former youth representative of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations and co-chair of the Assembly of First Nations National Youth Council.

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I remember being apprehended from my mother twice while I was a child. I distinctly remember a white woman ripping me out of my mother's arms and putting me in the back of a car. I was placed with white families that had no connection to my culture or identity.

As a kid, you obviously want to stay at home with your family. You become traumatized. But the worst part of the experience is seeing the look on mom's face when you are taken away.

Fortunately, my mother was able to bring me home not long after. This isn't the case for the majority of Indigenous children apprehended every day in Canada.

Many of them will never see their families or communities again, and become disconnected from their identity. You could say they become further assimilated by government policy.

This system mimics the Indian Residential Schools, where kids were forcibly taken from their homes to implement the government's assimilation agenda. But now, when Indigenous children are taken from their homes, it is justified as being in the "best interest of the child" by the Child & Family Services Act.

Remember that some still argue that the government had "good intentions" during the implementation of Indian Residential Schools, much like the government controlling the child welfare system. Unfortunately, these "good intentions" resulted in the hundreds of graves of children that we are still uncovering today.

Meanwhile, there is an undeniable correlation between the intentions of both systems and the current behaviour of government.

Most recently, headlines in media have revolved around the recent Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT) decision, which would have compensated First Nations children that were discriminated against by the federal government while they were in foster care on the basis of "wilful and reckless" treatment and underfunding.

Canada is now seeking to settle out of court with Indigenous organizations such as the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), which already turned down a previous offer from the federal government of just over $5 billion, according to my sources at the AFN.

Personally, I believe the AFN turned down the offer for two reasons:

First, the CHRT would have ordered Canada to pay far more than $5 billion, (likely around $15 billion). Second, Canada has a pattern of losing this battle in court and if this ever goes to the Supreme Court of Canada, my assumption is Canada would lose again.

We are fortunate to have the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal and Federal Court, because it's obvious that without this judicial arm Canada would continue to underfund Indigenous children in foster care, much like it underfunds them in every other sector of government.

I guess we cannot place the blame entirely on the government of the day when the last Indian Residential School closed in 1996, because it's obvious they are still coming to terms with how Indigenous children should be treated without a clear assimilation policy.

Therefore, I believe it's Canadians themselves that need to care, the same way that an entire country came together and wore orange when the children's graves were found. Maybe Canadians can also do something for the Indigenous children that are still alive today.

As you are reading this, more Indigenous children are being taken away from their families. Meanwhile, the lawyers for the Ministry of Justice are building their case to negotiate a settlement out of court.

Even though this case might be about protecting government liability and saving money for the next federal budget, it has nothing to do with money for Indigenous children. It's about living in a country with the right to be free from discrimination.

Imagine for a second that these were white children found to have been discriminated against by the government of Canada. Do you really believe Canada would appeal a human rights decision ordering government to treat children fairly?

Every child should have the right to be with their family without the threat of government taking them away.

If you really want to protect the "best interest of the child," maybe you should start by not discriminating against them.

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