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VULNERABLE388
Canada’s Statutory Human Rights Obligations Towards First
Nations Peoples When Responding to Public Health Crises
Canada’s approach to the provision of services to First Nations chil-
dren and their families is a chilling reminder of the harmful impacts of
inequities in government services. The decision and remedial orders of
the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (“CHRT”) regarding Canada’s
inequitable funding of children’s services for First Nations families
provide a comprehensive roadmap of the federal government’s legal
obligations for the funding and provision of measures designed to
prevent and respond to health crises.
For decades, the Government of Canada was well aware of the
inequities in its First Nations Child and Family Services Program
(“FNCFSP”). It failed to act, despite its knowledge that its inequitable
program caused children to be taken from their families and commu-
nities at alarming rates. In 2007, the First Nations Children and Family
Caring Society of Canada (“Caring Society”) and the Assembly of
First Nations (“AFN”) lodged a complaint against the Government
of Canada under the Canadian Human Rights Act (“CHRA”), alleging
discrimination on the basis of race and/or national or ethnic origin in
the provision of child and family services to First Nations children
and their families and in the failure to implement Jordan’s Principle.28
After nearly a decade of procedural tactics by government lawyers to
have the case dismissed on technicalities, the CHRT began a hearing
relating to the complaint.
In January 2016, the CHRT released its long-awaited decision
on the merits of the complaint and upheld all of the allegations of
discrimination. In particular, the CHRT found that First Nations chil-
dren and their families were adversely impacted by Canada’s provi-
sion of child services and its failure to implement Jordan’s Principle,
a child-first principle that helps to ensure that all First Nations chil-
dren living on and off reserve have access to the government-funded
products, services, and supports they need when they need them.
According to the CHRT, Canada’s conduct was contrary to s. 5 of the
CHRA. Based on these findings of systemic discrimination, the CHRT
ruled that in order to comply with its domestic and international
human rights law obligations, Canada must “consider the distinct
28. See First Nations Child & Family Caring Society of Canada et al v Attorney GeneralÂ
of Canada (representing the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada),Â
2017 CHRT 14 at para 135.
VULNERABLE
The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Title
- VULNERABLE
- Subtitle
- The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Authors
- Vanessa MacDonnell
- Jane Philpott
- Sophie Thériault
- Sridhar Venkatapuram
- Publisher
- Ottawa Press
- Date
- 2020
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9780776636429
- Size
- 15.2 x 22.8 cm
- Pages
- 648
- Categories
- Coronavirus
- International