Call to Action # 3

Why “In Progress”?

April 25, 2024: Indigenous Services Canada’s (ISC) compliance rate dropped to 24 per cent for urgent cases and 29 per cent for non-urgent cases between April 1, 2023 and Feb. 29, 2024, according to the tribunal documents. For urgent individual cases, the federal department wants the deadline stretched from 12 hours to 48 hours. For non-urgent cases, the department wants to extend the deadline from 48 hours to whatever it considers reasonable, in response to what it calls a significant increase in demand.

July 26, 2023: The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT) “finds that the revised First Nations Child and Family Services, Jordan’s Principle and Trout Class Settlement Agreement dated April 19, 2023, fully satisfies the Tribunal’s Compensation Orders.” The original $20B compensation was increased to over $23B to cover all impacted First Nations children

April 7, 2022 – Budget 2022 invests $4B to support long-term reforms to improve implementation of Jordan’s Principle

Jan. 4, 2022: After fighting the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal since 2006, the federal government on Dec. 31, 2021 signed two Agreements-in-Principle on December 31, 2021 for a total settlement package valued at $40 billion that resolves the CHRT Tribunal as well as two class action lawsuits.

• First Agreements-in-Principle proposes a total settlement of $20 billion in compensation to First Nations children and families impacted by discrimination through the FNCFS program and the improper implementation of Jordan’s Principle. The compensation acknowledges that First Nations children were unnecessarily apprehended from their parents and communities and suffered harms that include abuse, the loss of language, loss of culture and loss of connection to their families and homelands. Compensation will also be made available to certain individuals who were subjected to a delay, denial or disruption of services, supports, treatment and products as a result of the federal government’s narrow application of Jordan’s Principle.
• The second Agreement-in-Principle commits the Government of Canada to $19.807 billion to reform the current FNCFS program and includes a framework to correct the many discriminatory aspects of the FNCFS program and the implementation of Jordan’s Principle.

The parties to the Agreement-in-Principle – Canada, the Assembly of First Nations, the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, the Chiefs of Ontario, the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, and counsel for the Moushoom and Trout class actions – will now negotiate a Final Settlement Agreement.
Sept. 16, 2020: The Manitoba government is seeking to clarify the legal obligations of the federal and provincial governments around Jordan’s Principle through a judicial review of a Manitoba Human Rights Commission decision to award damages to a First Nations family for systemic racism and denial of access to health care.