MONTREAL, May 1, 2024
/CNW/ - A class action brought forward by two Quebec Inuit women
against Canada and Quebec has been given the green light to
proceed in a ruling released by the Quebec Superior Court
yesterday.
The two Inuit women, both from the Northern Quebec region of Nunavik, were taken
into care multiple times and suffered abuse and neglect at the
hands of their caregivers. Their case alleges that
Quebec and Canada neglected Indigenous children by
prioritizing removal of Indigenous children from their homes and
communities over prevention services that would have allowed them
to stay within their families and communities. This prioritization
of removals led to a decades-long crisis of lost childhoods, broken
families and suffering within Indigenous communities throughout
Quebec.
The case alleges that Canada abandoned its constitutional
obligations to off-reserve Indigenous children and families by
delegating their welfare and protection to the provinces without
ensuring adequate standards and funding were in place to safeguard
their wellbeing and preserve their culture. Left to an under-funded
provincial welfare system that prioritized family breakups over
keeping families together through prevention, Indigenous youth and
their families were made to suffer discrimination and emotional
harm compounded by the legacy of the Residential School system and
the Sixties Scoop.
Yesterday's decision in A.B. et al. v. Attorney-General of
Quebec et al. follows a ruling
in 2022 in which the Quebec Court
of Appeal declared:
Aboriginal children are overrepresented in
youth protection systems throughout Canada. In addition to the suffering they must
endure as a result of this situation, it has serious detrimental
effects on them, their families and their communities, particularly
as regards the preservation of their identity, language and
culture. This reality, which was recently highlighted by a number
of commissions of inquiry, is the subject of consensus and the
Government of Quebec does not
dispute it.
The judgment authorizing this class action also cites decades of
reports and studies into Quebec's
child welfare system that decried the lack of adequate funding and
training that could have prevented or lessened the mass removals.
In one report on the state of the child welfare system in Nunavik,
Quebec's Human Rights Commission
found "the fundamental rights of the children and young people, as
recognized in sections 1, 4 and 39 of Québec's Charter of human
rights and freedoms, have been infringed."
About this decision, representative plaintiff Tanya Jones, said:
"The whole reason why I decided to bring this
case was so that I could come out of the shadows that child welfare
cast over my childhood and my life to this day. I wanted to find
the courage to get back my voice and speak out about what happened
to me and other Inuit children like myself. I wanted our stories
and our truth to be told. I am happy that this judgment allows our
claim to move forward and for our stories to be told. I am happy
that we get our day in court so that not only me, but all
Indigenous children in Quebec
affected by a broken system, like myself, can speak their truth and
find healing."
Representative plaintiff A.B., whose identity is covered by a
confidentiality order, stated:
"I still have scars on my body and face from the
abuse I suffered as a child in care. I feel shame in my own body,
even now that I am a grandmother. A lot of Indigenous children like
me went through this trauma. We are also human beings. I don't want
us to be left behind."
The decision is one in a series of cases instituted in the
Federal Court and in various provincial courts on behalf of Inuit,
Métis, and off-reserve First Nation youth and their caregivers who
have been left out of the recent $23.34
billion settlement in Moushoom et al. v. Canada
(Moushoom), despite having suffered the very same forms of
discrimination as the on-reserve First Nations youth and families
covered by the Moushoom settlement.
In June 2022, the Federal Court
certified Stonechild v. Canada on behalf of a class of
Indigenous youth living off-reserve who suffered a loss of their
cultural identity as a consequence of being apprehended and placed
into state care. A.B. et al. v. Attorney-General of
Quebec et al. is the
first provincial case to be authorized to proceed as a class
action. Courts in British Colombia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario will decide in upcoming hearings
whether to allow similar cases to proceed in their provinces.
Plaintiff counsel, Mohsen
Seddigh, noted:
"By settling the Moushoom case,
Canada has taken the necessary
steps of reforming the on-reserve child welfare system and
compensating the children and families who suffered discrimination
under it. But the children and families who live off-reserve
are every bit as Indigenous and suffered from the very same
treatment. Yet they are left out in the cold, having to continue to
fight their provincial and federal governments for justice in
courts all across Canada. We hope
that this decision from the Quebec Superior Court will cause the
governments to recognize their wrongs and do the right thing: stop
fighting the kids. Many lives hang in the balance."
For further information, please contact:
Alexandre Brosseau-Wery
Kugler Kandestin, LLP
William Colish
Alexeev Attorneys, LLP
David Sterns or Mohsen Seddigh
Sotos LLP
Louis-Nicholas Coupal
Coupal Chauvelot S.A.
SOURCE Sotos Class Actions