Ottawa, Canad – A Canadian court on Tuesday approved a historic multi-billion dollar agreement to reform the country’s discriminatory child welfare system and compensate Indigenous families who suffered because of it.
It awards Can$23 billion (US$16.7 billion) in compensation to more than 300,000 children and their families, and an additional Can$20 billion for the reform of the child welfare system in Indigenous communities.
“It’s a historical compensation agreement and the largest in the history of Canada,” Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu told reporters in Ottawa.
“It will in no way erase the harms done but it will acknowledge the pain that many of the litigants suffered,” she added.
The settlement follows several lawsuits that led to decades of litigation and negotiations, and a human rights tribunal’s finding that the government had underfunded Indigenous children’s services compared to those for non-Indigenous children.
Despite making up less than eight percent of children under 14, Indigenous children account for more than half of those in Canada’s foster care, according to a 2016 census.
The settlement also comes on the heels of discoveries of hundreds of unmarked graves at former Indigenous residential schools set up by the government to effectively strip students of their culture and language.
From the late 19th centry to the 1990s, some 150,000 Indigenous children were taken from their homes and placed into one of 139 residential schools.
Thousands died, mostly from malnutrition, disease or neglect, in what a truth and reconciliation committee called “cultural genocide” in a 2015 report. Many others were physically or sexually abused.
Pope Francis during a July 2022 visit to Canada apologized for abuses at the church-run schools.
Canada is just starting to come to terms with the nationwide trauma.
The government has made reconciliation a priority, but had previously fought court orders for compensation in the child welfare case, saying it preferred to negotiate a settlement.
Indigenous child advocate Cindy Blackstock said on X, the platform previously known as Twitter, she was now “thinking of all the victims” and looked forward to the swift disbursement of the settlement funds.
Indigenous groups have also called for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to apologize for the government’s treatment of Indigenous children.
Hajdu said she has passed on that request to Trudeau, adding “the Canadian government owes an apology to Indigenous people who have suffered tremendously through discriminatory programs like the child welfare system.”