A 14-year fight over First Nations child welfare could end today — here's what you need to know

The federal government has until the end of the day to decide whether to end or prolong a bitter 14-year battle over compensation for discrimination in the Indigenous child welfare system.

In 2016, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal issued a decision that said the federal government discriminated against First Nations children by underfunding an on-reserve child welfare system that paid little attention to the consequences of removing First Nations children from their homes.

The tribunal said Canada's actions led to "trauma and harm to the highest degree, causing pain and suffering."

Some estimates place the number of children potentially affected by the tribunal's ruling at about 50,000, with the largest numbers in the Prairies and British Columbia. The ruling also covers First Nation children in Yukon.

Today is the deadline for the federal government to decide whether to appeal the order. The case has been the subject of heated debate between critics casting the Trudeau government's commitment to reconciliation as hypocritical and those arguing the tribunal's order was problematic.

Here is what you need to know:

For Ottawa, billions of dollars are at stake.

The tribunal ordered Ottawa to pay $40,000 — the maximum allowed under the Canadian Human Rights Act — to each child affected by the on-reserve child welfare system from at least Jan. 1, 2006, to a date to be determined by the tribunal.

The tribunal said the parents and grandparents of those children (depending on who was the primary guardian at the time) would also be eligible for compensation as long as the children weren't taken into the child welfare system because of abuse.

It also directed the federal government to pay $40,000 to each First Nations child (along with the child's primary guardian) who was denied services or forced to leave home to access services covered by the policy known as Jordan's Principle.

That policy states that the needs of a First Nations child requiring a government service take precedence over jurisdictional disputes over who should pay for it.

The Jordan's Principle portion of the order covers the period from Dec. 12, 2007 — when the House of Commons adopted Jordan's Principle — to Nov. 2, 2017, when the tribunal ordered Canada to change its definition of Jordan's Principle and review previously denied requests.

The order also states compensation must be paid to the estates of deceased individuals who would have been eligible for compensation.

In the fall of 2019, the federal government submitted an application to the Federal Court to set aside the tribunal's order and dismiss the claim for compensation. That decision drew widespread condemnation from First Nations leaders, the NDP, the Green Party and human rights organizations like Amnesty International.