Canada will finally pay more than 23,000 million Canadian dollars (15,600 million euros) in compensation to indigenous children and their families, victims of discrimination by the child protection system.
Billed as “the largest compensation deal in Canadian history” in January 2022, it was thrown out of court. After the revision, the agreement will include more people and its amount has been revised upwards by 3 billion, the Canadian government and indigenous groups announced on Wednesday.
For victims between 1991 and 2022
The revised agreement, which would end a legal battle that has lasted more than 15 years, has been approved by the Assembly of First Nations. It has yet to be validated by the courts.
A Canadian court had rejected the initial agreement, considering in particular that the agreement excluded certain children. Finally, it is the families of more than 300,000 children who will be compensated.
The agreement will apply to those who were victims of the system between April 1, 1991 and March 31, 2022.
These are “historic sums, even from a global perspective, but we are also talking about historical errors up to the 1990s,” Crown Minister for Indigenous Relations Marc Miller told a news conference.
Despite representing less than 8% of children under the age of 14 in Canada, Indigenous children made up more than half of those placed in the child welfare system, according to a 2016 census.
Canada’s indigenous populations experience higher levels of poverty and lower life expectancy than other Canadians, and are more frequently victims of violent crime, substance abuse, and imprisonment.
Source: BFM TV
