Child-welfare gaps led to youth suicides, Indigenous group argues at Federal Court
OTTAWA — Children and youth in remote First Nations who have died by suicide are a tragic examples showing Canada’s harms toward Indigenous kids was wilful and reckless, lawyers argued in Federal Court Wednesday.
Akosua Matthews, representing the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, a political territorial organization representing 49 mainly remote First Nations in northwestern Ontario, says the federal government’s arguments before the court are merely an attempt to avoid responsibility.
Ottawa has said that there was inadequate evidence for the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal to award compensation to First Nations children harmed by the child-welfare system.
Matthews pointed to tragic cases in the remote First Nation of Wapekeka, which in 2016 was concerned about suicide pacts among a group of young girls in the area.