The federal government is challenging a legal order that would require it to immediately address a backlog of requests for aid, many of which are urgent, in principle programs needed for Jordanian First Nations youth.
After hearing allegations that Indigenous Services Canada was putting children at risk by failing to process these claims promptly, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ordered Ottawa. Nov. 21 Summary rulingGiving Canada 30 days to challenge the panel's order.
At the last possible moment – on Friday afternoon on December 20 – federal lawyers filed an application for judicial review in the Federal Court, seeking to overturn the decision.
“There are significant legal issues with certain aspects of the summary judgment” that need to be resolved, Tribal Services Minister Patty Hajdu said. In a statement Announcing the move. The statement did not specify what those issues are.
The Canadian court filing does not elaborate on this point, saying only that “the tribunal erred in law or otherwise issued an unreasonable summary order.” Canada requested a pause in the judicial review pending a full decision, Hajdu said.
Cindy Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, which filed the motion against Canada, denounced the application as a delaying tactic in a recent interview.
“They should put their efforts into business to comply with legal orders instead of all these pointless challenges,” she said.
Blackstock and the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) have been advancing this human rights complaint to the tribunal since 2007. They initially accused Canada of underfunding on-reserve child and family services over the years and refused to comply with Jordan's principles.
But recently cracks have appeared in their approach, hedging their position on Blackstock's momentum, fully supporting neither him nor Canada. AFN acknowledged a request for comment but did not respond.
CBC Indigenous reported last month that the federal governments, both Conservative and Liberal, have spent at least $14.5 million on — and lost — this 18-year legal battle.
“They've lost every decision, except one that was overturned on appeal,” Blackstock said.
“It's a waste of taxpayers' money and, frankly, worse, it's a waste of children's childhoods when they don't take the necessary steps to fix the problems.”
Endorsed by the House of Commons in 2007, Jordan's Principles aim to ensure First Nations youth can access health care and social services without delays tied to jurisdictional disputes.
It is named after Jordan River Andersen, a Norwegian House Cree Nation boy, born in 1999 with multiple disabilities. Jordan died at the age of five, spending his entire life in hospital because Manitoba and Ottawa could not agree on who should pay for his home. look after
Not only did Blackstock and the AFN win their grievances, they secured $23.4 billion in compensation for victims, and a separate proposal of $47.8 billion over 10 years to reform the on-reserve child welfare system, which First Nations leaders ultimately voted to renegotiate. did the fall
The fate of that initiative is now uncertain after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau decided to step down after the Liberal Party chose a successor.
In a Dec. 10 report, Canada called the order “challenging” and “not operationally feasible” to address the backlog immediately. Indigenous Services Canada reported that Jordan had a backlog of principle applications of 140,000, with 25,000 labeled as urgent.
But the department could not estimate when the backlog would be cleared, wrote Diana Anderson, Justice Canada's general counsel. Individual urgent requests must be processed within 12 hours.
In his statement, Hajdu said that more than 8.2 million products, services and support for the Jordanian principle have been approved since 2016, amounting to approximately $8.8 billion, and that Ottawa has worked to meet the increasing volume of requests.
Blackstock countered that past progress cannot excuse continued violations of children's rights.
“Sadly, in many cases children are suffering irreparable damage,” she said.
