TORONTO -- Cindy Blackstock, one of the complainants involved in negotiations between First Nations and the federal government over compensation for Indigenous children who were removed from their homes says there was little progress following the first day of talks.
Blackstock, who is executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, told CTV's Your Morning on Tuesday that the negotiation is "just a process at this point" and she is doubtful that both parties will come to a resolution.
"What people really need to know is that we're very disappointed that the federal government is continuing this litigation even by filing this appeal, and that we're in here for a very short period of time because we want the discrimination by the federal government to stop," Blackstock said.
"We want this to be the last generation of First Nations kids who's actually hurt by the government directly," she added.
The federal government appealed on Friday a Federal Court decision to uphold a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT) order requiring Ottawa to compensate First Nations children, but said it would work with Indigenous groups, including the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, to resolve the dispute outside of court.
In the notice of appeal, the government argued that the Federal Court erred in finding that the CHRT acted "reasonably" by ordering complete compensation for children, their parents, or grandparents for being unnecessarily removed from their communities since 2006.
The appeal is active, but the government says it will pause the litigation for two months.
Ottawa and Indigenous groups on the other side of the lawsuit began negotiations on Monday with the goal of reaching a resolution by December.
The two sides will look to agree on: providing "fair, equitable compensation" to First Nations children on-reserve and in the Yukon who were removed from their homes by child and family services agencies; achieving "long-term reform" of the First Nations and Family Service program; and, delivering funding for the "purchase and/or construction of capital assets" that support the delivery of child and family services.
If the negotiations don’t end in a resolution after two months, the appeal will proceed in an expedited fashion.
CTV's Your Morning and CTVNews.ca reached out to Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller for comment on how Ottawa felt the first day of talks went, but did not hear back at the time of publishing.
During a press conference on Friday announcing the move to enter into a negotiation period, Miller said the appeal was made because the government is concerned about imposing a "one-size-fits-all approach," but noted that Ottawa remains committed to reaching a resolution.
Miller noted that there is "work to be done outside the courts," including long-term reform and self-determination discussions.
"We have said from the get-go that we want to compensate those children. This is a broad and sweeping decision by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal and we’ve said it before, [we have] certain jurisdictional issues with it. That should not prevent us from moving forward on a global resolution," he said.
In 2016, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal found that Ottawa discriminated against First Nations children by knowingly underfunding child and family services for those living on reserve. Litigants in the case first brought forward in 2007 say this led to thousands of kids being apprehended from their families and enduring abuse in provincial foster care systems.
The tribunal ordered Ottawa to pay $40,000, the maximum the tribunal can award, to each child as well as their parents and grandparents.
In 2019, the federal government asked the Federal Court to dismiss the tribunal's decisions, but the court upheld the orders last month. Friday was the final day for the government to file an appeal.
The damages that Indigenous children have faced are "irreversible," Blackstock said, and while "nothing's going to compensate them for their lost childhoods," she says $40,000 "would do some measure of justice."
"We're still seeing families separated unnecessarily because of inequalities that continue to happen in Child and Family Services. We're also seeing children being denied services that they should receive and being hurt by that," she said.
Blackstock said the groups want to see Ottawa "accept responsibility" for its treatment of Indigenous children within the child welfare system and commit to ending inequities that First Nations continue to face including access to clean drinking water, high-standard housing and safe schooling.
Blackstock said Indigenous leaders are working together with the federal government, but are prepared to walk away from the table should they feel that negotiations are stalling.
"I want to be able to get a deal for these kids to stop the discrimination, but if that doesn't happen, or we're getting a sense of it's just spinning its wheels, we'll be out of there and back in court," Blackstock said.
Blackstock says Indigenous groups want to see change from the federal government "at the level of the children," adding that announcements and "fluffy statements" don't do much by way of providing aid.
"What we need to see is that the discrimination needs to stop for children and families and that we never have to have a generation of kids that have to recover from childhoods because of what the government of Canada did," she said.
With files from CTVNews.ca's Sarah Turnbull and The Canadian Press
