Canada challenges indigenous children compensation order

Canada says it will appeal a court order to pay billions of dollars to compensate indigenous children who have gone through the childcare system.

Last month, a supreme court upheld a 2016 ruling that the government underfunded First Nations services over those for non-indigenous children.

He ordered payments of C $ 40,000 ($ 31,350; £ 23,340) to each child who was in the reserve welfare system after 2006.

The case has been a source of tension between the tribes and the government.

The government has said it is not against compensation, but has problems over the jurisdiction of the order and how to divide the money.

Ministers and officials said in a statement Friday that they had filed a “protective appeal” as the deadline approaches, but to suspend the litigation until all parties meet before December. The statement added that they will try to resolve the matter outside of court.

“I despise the images, but we are lowering our swords,” Crown Minister for Indigenous Relations Marc Miller told reporters at a press conference on Friday night.

Activists had asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government not to appeal the sentence.

Cindy Blackstock of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society told CBC News: “If there is no agreement, we will go to hearings on an accelerated basis. We don’t want the children to lose this time.”

In 2016, the Canadian Tribunal for Human Rights ruled that the government had underfunded First Nations childcare services over those for non-indigenous children.

The government appealed that ruling in 2019 but lost its challenge in federal court last month.

Mr Trudeau, who won re-election last month, took office in 2015 promising to strengthen and restore ties with native communities.

Speaking from the Netherlands ahead of the international summits in Rome and Glasgow, he told reporters: “We are committed to compensating indigenous peoples who have been harmed by children in childcare and family services.”