First Nations leaders split on strategy amid Jordan's Principle hearing

As First Nations leaders and the federal government bear down to try to seal a multibillion-dollar deal on child and family services reform, more than money is on the line.

Advocate Cindy Blackstock says children's lives remain at risk due to Ottawa's mismanagement of the Jordan's Principle program — and that's why her organization broke a landmark agreement-in-principle, worth nearly $20 billion, to restart litigation at the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.

"We came here as a last resort," Blackstock told CBC Indigenous on Thursday, after watching cross examination of top federal officials over two days in a downtown Ottawa hearing room.

"We tried all the rest of the stuff. The problem with negotiating is that negotiation is appropriate when you have a motivated other party to do the change."

But with the $20-billion final settlement under negotiation, some feel now is not the time for litigation — leading some of Blackstock's allies, including the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), to break ranks with her First Nations Child and Family Caring Society over some issues.

National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said the AFN supports the Caring Society's motion "in part" and will oppose other proposals.

The longstanding complaint dates to 2007, when Blackstock's group joined with the AFN to file it with the tribunal, alleging Ottawa had underfunded child and family services on reserves for years and chronically failed to meet mandatory timelines when answering requests under Jordan's Principle — a program that ensures First Nations youth can access medically necessary products and services without delays linked to jurisdictional disputes.

The tribunal upheld that complaint in 2016, and eventually the Trudeau government proposed a $40-billion umbrella settlement in 2022.

The settlement comprises two signed agreements-in-principle on compensation and reform. While the former was approved at $23.4 billion last year, the $19.8-billion reform deal remains under negotiation.

But the agreement-in-principle bars motions like Blackstock's renewed litigation, meaning the society has breached it. Blackstock concedes this, and has "stepped out" of the talks.

The move puts other parties, which include the federal government, the AFN and two other groups that joined the case later — the Chiefs of Ontario and Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) — in a tactical bind. Some feel now is not the time for litigation.

"We're committed to staying at the negotiating table with the federal government on this matter, all due respect to Cindy Blackstock," said Bobby Narcisse, deputy grand chief of NAN, representing 49 First Nations in northern Ontario.

"These applications need to be sorted in a timely manner, but the motion shouldn't railroad the negotiations," he said.

The Caring Society "shouldn't be boycotting the negotiation process we all agreed to."