Indigenous leaders call Ottawa’s appeal on child compensation a step back in reconciliation | The Canadian News

Indigenous leaders say the federal government’s potential appeal of a ruling ordering Ottawa to compensate children taken from their homes is a step back in reconciliation.

“I think that talking is cheap, I think that at the end of the day what we want is what every Canadian should demand and that is that the orders of the Canadian Court of Human Rights be respected”, Mary Teegee (Maaxw Gibuu), of Takla Nation, and The chairman of the BC Indigenous Children and Family Services Directors told Global News.

The federal government announced Friday that it would halt litigation for two months to try to negotiate a settlement in December. But that will only prolong the process for Ottawa to deliver on its promises, said Jessica Mikolayczyk, a board member for the Gitanmaax gang.

“They make those commitments publicly with Canadians, but nothing is happening on the ground and that is what we are experiencing in our communities and that is why leaders have to take matters into our own hands,” Mikolayczyk said, referring to a incident on October 17 when members of her community came together to prevent a social worker from taking a six-year-old girl to her foster home.

On Friday, a judge ruled that the girl would not be removed from the First Nation, determining that it was in her best interest to remain close to her family and cultural home, according to the Gitanmaax gang.

That ruling came on the same day that Ottawa filed a notice that it plans to challenge a ruling that orders to compensate approximately 54,000 Indigenous children and their families $ 40,000 per child, which is equivalent to about $ 2 billion.

“It was nothing but a great disappointment. The initial ruling was in 2006, 15 years have passed and the government is still fighting against those submissions. It’s very disheartening and doesn’t show any level of commitment, “he said.

“Taking a child out of the province and away from his biological father is no different when it comes to what happened in the residential school system.”

Ottawa’s decision to continue the 15-year battle against a ruling to compensate children taken from their homes under discriminatory policies runs counter to verbal commitments the government made, Teegee said, noting that it comes during an adjustment of National accounts of the deaths of children in residential schools that operated until 1996 and how the Prime Minister urges Canadians to support the survivors.

“Reconciliation is never having to apologize twice, and you think about that a couple of weeks ago, when Trudeau said, ‘I’m sorry I went to Tofino instead of being on the first National Truth and Reconciliation Day, he said that sorry’. many times, ”he said.

The talks are scheduled to begin Monday between indigenous leaders and the federal government and, if no agreement is reached, they will end in court, but Teegee says he remains hopeful.

“When you have a system and a bureaucracy that are so ingrained in a colonial mindset, it will take a lot to change that, so I think there will be a change, but it won’t be because they want to, it’s because they will. be forced to do so, and that is why we keep going back to court. “

Until the federal government takes steps to meet its commitments, indigenous leaders will continue to intervene to protect their children to the best of their ability, Mikolayczyk said.

“We will continue to protect our children in our communities,” he said.

Teegee added that every Canadian has a role to play in ensuring that there is justice for children and their families who have been discriminated against by government policies and are suffering due to inadequate funding of the child welfare system.

“You have to think of Canada in the international market, this beacon of human rights,” he said.

“And at home, even the government doesn’t respect basic human rights. The onus really falls on Canadians to go back and say you have to do the right thing in this country. “