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Results: 76 - 90 of 98
View Justin Trudeau Profile
Lib. (QC)
View Justin Trudeau Profile
2019-12-11 14:53 [p.271]
Mr. Speaker, we strongly agree that we must compensate indigenous children harmed by past government policies.
We want to ensure that indigenous people harmed under the discriminatory child welfare system are compensated in a way that is both fair and timely. We want to work with all parties to address this issue. We have demonstrated our commitment to addressing the long-standing child and family service needs of first nations, Inuit and Métis children.
View Charlie Angus Profile
NDP (ON)
View Charlie Angus Profile
2019-12-09 19:06 [p.142]
Mr. Chair, it is always a great honour to rise in this place. I am very honoured to have the opportunity to talk with my friend, the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations. I will keep my remarks fairly short so we can make the most of this.
The Prime Minister said his most important relationship is with first nations people. When I talk to first nations families, they tell me their most important relationship is with their children. Tonight we are talking about the policies of the government that have systemically discriminated without caution, and been found to be reckless discrimination against children who have died.
These have consequences. I think of Azraya Ackabee-Kokopenace, from Grassy Narrows; Amy Owen, Chantell Fox, Jolynn Winter, Jenera Roundsky and Kanina Sue Turtle from Wapekeka; Tammy Keeash, who was found in a brutal condition in the McIntyre River; and Courtney Scott from Fort Albany First Nation, who died a horrific death.
When I read the latest ruling against the government, they said no amount of compensation could ever recover what these children have lost. This case of racial discrimination is one of the worst and it warrants maximum awards.
I have named a few of the children that I am aware of and whose families I have spoken to. APTN says that while the government was fighting the Human Rights Tribunal, 103 children died in care in Ontario.
Could the minister tell us how many children died in care across this country while her government fought the Human Rights Tribunal?
View Carolyn Bennett Profile
Lib. (ON)
Mr. Chair, I thank the member for his ongoing advocacy.
Any child who dies in care is one child too many. This has been a national tragedy and is a key part of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. It is a key part of how failed government policies for generations have resulted in this terrible tragedy.
Our government has decided, with the families, to do everything we can to not separate families and not have children in care. Bill C-92 will mean that communities will have the resources necessary to keep those families together, to get that child to the healthy auntie or healthy grandparents and to bring their children home.
The children in care who are in unsafe circumstances in the cities of this country are leading to this tragedy. I also want to assure the member that we have to compensate the people who were harmed by this failed policy.
View Carolyn Bennett Profile
Lib. (ON)
Mr. Chair, the member opposite knows very well that the numbers we have on so many issues, including missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, are not good numbers. Whatever number he would give me, it is probably way higher, and it has to stop.
View Charlie Angus Profile
NDP (ON)
View Charlie Angus Profile
2019-12-09 19:10 [p.142]
Mr. Chair, I appreciate that from the minister, but the legal brief of the federal government says the opposite. It says in paragraph 31 in the latest filing that “There was insufficient evidence before the Tribunal to demonstrate that any particular children were improperly removed from their home”.
Does the minister agree with her government's lawyers?
View Carolyn Bennett Profile
Lib. (ON)
Mr. Chair, we know from the apprehension of children, whether it is through all of the class actions that we have settled on the sixties scoop and on all of these things, that children are safest when they are with their family or extended family or in their communities. I do believe that we need to find alternate ways to keep these children safe.
View Charlie Angus Profile
NDP (ON)
View Charlie Angus Profile
2019-12-09 19:11 [p.142]
Mr. Chair, the minister's government has gone to Federal Court to quash a ruling that has found the government guilty of discrimination, and the government said that no evidence was produced that there was harm to children. Is that the government's position, yes or no?
View Carolyn Bennett Profile
Lib. (ON)
Mr. Chair, I think we all know that children apprehended from their families do not do well. Children aging out of care do not do well. We need to keep these families together, which has been the focus as opposed to the money going to lawyers to apprehend children, agencies and non-indigenous foster families. We need these children supported at home in their communities.
View Carolyn Bennett Profile
Lib. (ON)
Mr. Chair, I think the most important number would be that from $600 million that used to go to children and families, it is now $1.6 billion going to children. We have no intention of fighting children in court. We want to get to the table and get them what they deserve.
View Charlie Angus Profile
NDP (ON)
View Charlie Angus Profile
2019-12-09 19:12 [p.142]
Mr. Chair, I believe the minister in the House has to tell the truth. Therefore, either she is not telling the truth or her lawyers in Federal Court are not, because the lawyers in Federal Court have taken the position that the Liberal government is going to quash a finding of systemic discrimination, because they said that there is no evidence with regard to adverse outcomes that flowed from being denied services.
The minister has told us again and again that she knows that services denied to children have hurt them, but her lawyers are saying the opposite. Who is not telling the truth here?
View Carolyn Bennett Profile
Lib. (ON)
Mr. Chair, the approach of our government is to make sure that all children who were harmed by these terrible colonial policies will be compensated.
However, we have also learned from the Indian residential schools and the sixties scoop that the children who had greater harm or who were in care longer want to be able to tell their stories, and like the class action on 1991 forward, we want to get to the table and get them what they deserve.
View Charlie Angus Profile
NDP (ON)
View Charlie Angus Profile
2019-12-09 19:14 [p.143]
Mr. Chair, I want to let the people know that what the minister's lawyers are saying is completely opposite to what she is telling the House. She is obliged to tell the truth in the House. The lawyers are saying that these children, who are represented by the AFN, Nishnawbe Aski Nation and First Nations Child & Family Caring Society, do not warrant compensation because they have not been tested by the government to the “precise nature and extent of harm suffered by each individual”.
What is the minister going to do, put four-year-old children before her lawyers like the government did to the St. Anne's Residential School survivors? How is the government going to test these children for the precise harms so its does not have to pay?
View Carolyn Bennett Profile
Lib. (ON)
Mr. Chair, I think the member opposite understands that the class action now being certified on the 1991 post-sixties scoop up to the present day tends to be the way we sort these things out with respect to what the appropriate care is for the amount of time people were harmed and the degree of the harm. It is very important that families have a voice, that children have a voice and that there is some assessment of fair and equitable treatment and compensation.
Results: 76 - 90 of 98 | Page: 6 of 7

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