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Listen to thisThe Canadian Human Rights Tribunal decision on First Nations child welfare is a historic win for First Nations children and for social justice in Canada, but its concrete impacts are yet to be determined.
In a decision released last week, the tribunal found that the federal government discriminates against First Nations children by failing to fund on-reserve child welfare services adequately, and by failing to ensure that First Nations children have timely access to the same services as other children in Canada. It directs the federal government to cease its discriminatory actions immediately, but has not yet ruled on the specific remedies that must be put in place.
The tribunal will define a process for determining these remedies over the next few weeks. Meanwhile, federal, provincial/territorial and First Nations leaders will be working to make sense of the ruling and to establish a framework for moving forward. Ordinary Canadians will be engaging with important questions raised by the ruling: How could this discrimination against First Nations children be allowed and what must we do to end discrimination and move toward reconciliation?
Three key points must shape these discussions:
1) There is a need for both urgent action and sustained investment in long-term change. The First Nations Child and Family Caring Society has released a detailed list of action reforms that the federal government, in partnership with provinces/territories and First Nations, can and should implement immediately. Federal, provincial and territorial governments must also commit to working in collaboration with First Nations on an ongoing basis to achieve long-term change. There are more on-reserve children in out-of-home care now than at the height of the ’60s Scoop. As demonstrated in the moving testimonies presented to Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), child removal has long-lasting, traumatic intergenerational effects. Meaningfully changing the systems and attitudes that have led to the profound overrepresentation of First Nations children in out-of-home care for the last 40 years will take concerted effort, significant investment of resources, sincere collaboration with First Nations, and time.
2) We must improve on-reserve social and economic conditions if we want to reduce the number of First Nations children in out-of-home care. Neglect is the primary concern in 46 per cent of child maltreatment investigations involving First Nations children. Neglect is a failure to tend to a child’s basic needs and is strongly linked to poverty, poor housing, social isolation and mental health or addictions issues. To reduce the number of First Nations children in care, we must not only remedy inequities in child welfare funding, we must also create the economic opportunities, and the complementary social services needed to support First Nations families. The TRC’s calls to action in the area of child welfare and in education, health, employment and social services offer an important guide to moving forward. Canada must make good on its commitment to implement the TRC recommendations.
3) We must use the human rights tribunal decision around on-reserve services as impetus to improve the services available to off-reserve First Nations children. One in eight off-reserve First Nations children in Manitoba, and one in 11 off-reserve First Nations children in Alberta, live in foster homes. (In comparison, one in 550 non-Aboriginal children in Manitoba and one in 250 non-Aboriginal children in Alberta, live in foster homes).
The tribunal’s legally binding decision is a milestone that must be celebrated. Now, collaboration is needed among federal and provincial/territorial governments and First Nations to realize the needed improvements to social services for First Nations people living both on and off-reserve. The Canadian public must recognize and challenge the implicit attitudes and patterns of behaviours that perpetuate the exclusion and marginalization of First Nations people, and be ready to hold our leaders to account.
January 31, 2016
