Displaying items by tag: First Nation

Prime minister Justin Trudeau came into office promising to strengthen and restore ties with native communities and recently told reporters, ‘We are committed to compensating indigenous people who were harmed as children in child and family services’. Yet his government says it will appeal against a court order to pay billions of dollars to compensate indigenous children who went through the child welfare system. Last month, a tribunal upheld a 2016 ruling that the government underfunded First Nations services compared with those for non-indigenous children, and ordered $40,000 (£23,340) payouts to each child who was in the on-reserve welfare system after 2006. The case has been a source of tension between tribes and the government. The government has said it is not opposed to compensation, but that it had issues over the order's jurisdiction and how the money was to be divided.

In Ontario Paul is in the civic centre and his wife is on a dialysis machine in a small motel room. They have been separated from their First Nations community since sewers froze two months ago. He said, ‘We’re forgotten people.’ Anti-indigenous racism is still widespread in Canada. Last month Ontario’s chief human rights commissioner said racism against indigenous people in Timmins is pervasive and normalised. People are scrutinised in stores, hassled when using status cards, called ‘dirty Indians’ and yelled at by motorists to go back to their reserves. If their name sounds First Nations or they look like one, it impacts their ability to get housing. In British Columbia First Nations officials have spoken out for years against a trans-mountain pipeline that will cross their territory without their even being consulted. On 16 April President Trudeau said work will go ahead, regardless of their objections. See: