Tansi Nîtôtemtik,
Catriona Charlie, a victim of the Sixties Scoop, reacts while listening to the details of the court case in Ottawa. (Retrieved from The Globe and Mail, online: <www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-to-settle-sixties-scoop-suits-for-hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars/article36502465/>.)
Across Canada on October 5th, 2017, the media announced that the federal government had reached a settlement with a majority of ongoing Sixties Scoop class action claims. How did this settlement come to be?
Judicial history:
18 class action suits across the provinces were initiated in 2010 by Indigenous survivors of the Sixties Scoop. They were suing the government for damages incurred from being removed from their homes as children. In Brown v. Attorney General of Canada, a decision from the Superior Court of Ontario, the class action suit alleged that: “many of these children lost their identity as Aboriginal persons, and their connection to their Aboriginal culture, that ultimately led to them suffering emotional, psychological and spiritual harm. More specifically, it is alleged that these children were deprived of their culture, customs, traditions, language and spirituality. This led them to experience loss of self-esteem, identity crisis and trauma in trying to reclaim their lost culture and traditions.” [1] The survivors claimed that the Sixties Scoop was Canada “wrongfully [delegating] its exclusive responsibility as guardian, trustee, protector, and fiduciary of aboriginal persons” to the provinces, and alleged both a breach of fiduciary duty and negligence.[2] In this decision, the court rejected an application from Canada to dismiss the class action suit. [3]
Negotiations and settlement:
The dismissal of Canada’s appeal to the Ontario Superior Court required a settlement be reached between Canada and the claimants, the survivors of the Scoop. Based on the Brown decision released in February 2017, Canada entered into negotiations to resolve all (or most) of the class-actions currently taking place across the country, and announced the settlement on October 5, 2017.[4]
Each survivor will receive $50,000 -- the initial cap that has been placed on the funds. The settlement itself is projected to cost the federal government $550 to $800 million, depending on how many victims come forward.[5] Estimates range from 5,000 to 30,000 individuals, but as noted with the IAP Payments blog post, these are only estimated numbers. The compensation amounts exclude lawyer fees; lawyer fees will be paid out of a separate fund and equate to 10-15% of the compensation given to the victim in question.[6]
Reactions:
This settlement is with a majority of the class action suits, but only includes First Nations and Inuit individuals. Métis victims of the Scoop have expressed they feel left out, and should not have been excluded from the settlement.[7] The government’s argument is that during the 1960s-1990s, the Métis and non-status Indians were not recognized by the federal government as being holders of Indigenous rights, so they had no role in putting Métis children in care.[8] Therefore, the federal government is requiring the provinces to bear some of the cost of settling the Métis claims, and has not reached an agreement yet.[9]
For the survivors covered by the agreement, there are mixed reactions as well. Money cannot heal the wounds of the victims that became lost, without culture, without language, and without community for much of their lives. Adam North Peigan, president of the Sixties Scoop Indigenous Society of Alberta, shared this comment with CBC News:
"It's impossible to put a dollar amount on the trauma and amount of atrocities survivors have had to endure," he said. "There's a lot of disbelief among survivors in Alberta. There's a sense of elation, but also disappointment." [10]
Chief Marcia Brown Martel, the lead plaintiff in the Ontario case, said she "feels lighter."
"I feel that the work that has taken [place] over these 12-13 years, 13 years, that is starting to come to fruition. It means that Canada will honour its children. It means that the harms that have been perpetuated and been allowed to happen in this country, that those days are coming to a close." [11]
Until next time,
Team ReconciliAction YEG
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[1] Brown v Attorney General of Canada, 2014 ONSC 6967 at para 2.
[2] Ibid at para 12.
[3] Ibid at paras 39-46.
[4] Blair Gable, “Ottawa to settle Sixties Scoop lawsuits for hundreds of millions of dollars”, The Globe and Mail (5 October 2017), online: <www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-to-settle-sixties-scoop-suits-for-hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars/article36502465/>.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Gloria Galloway, “Métis say they should not have been left out of Sixties Scoop compensation”, The Globe and Mail (10 October 2017), online: <www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/metis-say-they-should-not-have-been-left-out-of-sixties-scoop-compensation/article36536782>.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Elisha Dacey, “Sixties Scoop survivors say $800M proposed settlement won’t heal their wounds”, CBC News (6 October 2017), online: <www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/sixties-scoop-reaction-mixed-1.4343760.>
[11] Ibid.
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