Thanks to an envelope of an unprecedented magnitude, the Government of Justin Trudeau hopes to turn the discrimination page of the nineteenth century to the families of the First Nations peoples.
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The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wanted to finish the year 2021 with a new appeasement gesture for Aboriginal communities. Tuesday, December 14, just before the suspension of parliamentary work for the Christmas truce, on the occasion of an economic update of the 2021-2022 budget, his Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland, announced in front of The House of Commons set aside $ 40 billion (approximately € 27.6 billion) for Aboriginal children.
The first half will be devoted to compensate children withdrawn from their parents since the 1990s to be placed in a chronicly underfunded family protection system by Ottawa. The other half will be used to improve across the country child protection services in Aboriginal communities. “It is essential to pay our debt with regard to indigenous peoples so that future generations are never confronted with the same systemic tragedies of the past,” said the minister, with reference to the Aboriginal Children’s Residential Schools system that existed. Canada between 1831 and 1996.
The $ 20 billion promised for compensation remain conditioned on an agreement that Ottawa must always conclude with the Assembly of First Nations and the First Nations Family Support Corporation and Family. In 2007, they had filed a complaint against the federal government in order to obtain compensation.
In 2016, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal had concluded that the country continued to “discriminate” with Aboriginal children, and had ordained three years later the federal government to pay 40 Dollars about 54,000 children and their loved ones. Ottawa had appealed, but the Federal Court confirmed last September court orders.
Since October, negotiations to find an amicable agreement has been started between the Government and Aboriginal Child Protection Associations. They must conclude before 31 December. By displaying its good will, with a key envelope, the government hopes to put an end to a judicial battle that has been going on for nearly fifteen years.
“Epidemic of suicides”
Without prejudging the final agreement that still has to intervene, the Director of the Support Corporation, Cindy Blackstock, acknowledged that “this offer represented an important step”. “The extent of the proposed compensation testifies to how many of our children have been torn from their families and their communities,” said the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Roseanne Archibald.
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