Quebec court gives green light to Indigenous child-welfare class action suit

Lawsuit alleges Canadian, provincial governments underfund services to Indigenous children

A class action lawsuit against the Canadian and Quebec governments started by two Nunavimmiut plaintiffs has been green-lit to proceed by Quebec’s superior court. The skyline of Kuujjuaq is shown in this photo. (Photo by Cedric Gallant)

By Cedric Gallant - Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Quebec’s superior court has decided a class action lawsuit alleging discriminatory underfunding of Indigenous child welfare services in the province will go forward.

The case’s proponents say the Canadian and Quebec governments are not abiding by their constitutional obligations to off-reserve Indigenous children and families. They also allege Canada is not ensuring adequate standards or funding for the provinces to take care of their Indigenous population.

Sotos Class Actions filed the suit alongside two law firms, Kugler Kandestin LLP and Coupal Chauvelot s.a. in Montreal. Sotos announced Tuesday in a news release that the case had been certified.

The lawsuit began with two petitioners, both of them having gone through the child welfare system in Nunavik.

The release said Indigenous youth and their families were “left to an under-funded provincial welfare system that prioritized family breakups over keeping families together through prevention.”

“[They] were made to suffer discrimination and emotional harm compounded by the legacy of the residential school system and the Sixties Scoop.”

The Sixties Scoop refers to a former federal program that allowed child welfare services to take Indigenous children from their families and communities, often to be adopted by white families.

The judgment that authorized this class action cites multiple reports and studies made over decades into Quebec’s child welfare system. All documents “decried the lack of adequate funding and training that could have prevented or lessened the mass removals.”

A report, done by Quebec’s Human Rights Commission, said the fundamental rights of children and young people recognized in sections of Quebec’s charter of human rights and freedoms were infringed.

“The whole reason why I decided to bring this case was so that I could come out of the shadows that child welfare cast over my childhood and my life to this day,” said Tanya Jones, one of the original plaintiffs, in the release.

“I am happy that this judgment allows our claim to move forward and for our stories to be told.”

In 2023, the federal government agreed to a $23.34-billion settlement to compensate on-reserve First Nations who were harmed by discrimination in Canada’s on-reserve Child and Family Services Program and essential public services.

The class action approved this week argues Inuit, Métis, and off-reserve First Nation youth have been left out, “despite having suffered the very same forms of discrimination as the on-reserve First Nations youth and families covered by the [federal] settlement.”

 

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