Deadline arrives for Ottawa to appeal ruling to compensate Indigenous kids

The deadline for the federal government to announce whether or not it will appeal an order directing it to compensate Indigenous children removed from their homes has arrived.

The Liberal government is expected to reveal Friday whether it will continue fighting an order directing it to compensate Indigenous children removed from their homes.

A 30-day legal window is closing for Ottawa to appeal a Federal Court ruling which upheld two historic decisions from the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.

It found Ottawa discriminated against First Nations children by knowingly underfunding child and family services for those living on reserve.

Litigants in the case say this led to thousands of kids being taken away from their families and enduring abuse and suffering in provincial foster care systems.

The tribunal said each First Nations child, along with their parents or grandparents, who were separated because of this chronic underfunding were eligible to receive $40,000 each in federal compensation.

It also ruled that the criteria needed to be expanded so more First Nations children could be eligible for Jordan’s Principle, a rule designed to ensure jurisdictional disputes over who pays for what doesn’t prevent kids from accessing government services.

In 2019, the federal government asked the Federal Court to dismiss the tribunal’s decisions, but the court last month upheld them.

Since then, pressure has been mounting from opposition parties and Indigenous leaders on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to accept the ruling, rather than take it to the Federal Court of Appeal.