Ottawa Blocks Aboriginal Lawsuit and Foster Care Statistics UPDATED

We covered a related story in August about the ’60s Scoop here. Now more stories and another lawsuit have come out. Some children were even split from their sibling group and moved across the border to the US. Since those former foster children are now US citizens, they cannot obviously participate in this type of lawsuit.

“The Harper government is fighting a class action lawsuit by aboriginal children who argue the loss of their culture in foster and adoptive care was a wrongful act — a case that could make western legal history.

Although Ontario Children’s Aid agencies took 16,000 children from their families during the so-called Sixties Scoop and placed them in non-aboriginal care, the multi-million-dollar lawsuit names only the Attorney General of Canada. Ottawa is constitutionally responsible for native peoples.

Ottawa quietly appealed the lawsuit in a Toronto courtroom on Oct. 28 — a year after it was certified by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

As a result, the case hasn’t gotten to court almost three years after it was filed.

Taken as children, the plaintiffs are now middle-aged and, in many cases, desperate to find their roots. They tell stories of abuse, prejudice, loneliness and isolation. They convey a sense of having been treated like commodities rather than human beings. Accounts suggest many were bounced around — even from country to country — with nobody keeping track.”

Marcia Brown’s Story

“Marcia Brown, 48, is a lead plaintiff on the case. Ontario Children’s Aid officials took her from the Beaverhouse First Nation in northeastern Ontario when she was 4.

Brown, who’s Ojibwa, went from foster homes to an adoptive home at 9, where she says her non-aboriginal mother tried to wash off her “dirty brown” colour and burned her stuffed tiger full of “Indian bugs.”

“When she was 17 and living in Texas with her adoptive mother, the woman took her to the Houston airport, handed her a ticket to Canada and sent her packing with nothing but a suitcase filled with her little girl clothes.

“I didn’t get to speak in my own tongue to my grandmother before she passed away,” she says. “I didn’t fit in anywhere. I saw no difference between myself and a puppy or kitten up for adoption.”

“I will never give up . . . . We live in a beautiful country but a great mark — the unpleasant history with the aboriginal people — stains Canada. The Canadian public doesn’t know the truth about what happened to the children.”

Rob Lackie’s Story

“Rob Lackie, 41, an Inuk from Happy Valley in Labrador, was also part of the Sixties Sweep (which actually ran from 1965 to 1985 with Ontario officials). Much of his past remains a mystery to him.

It’s not clear how Ontario Children’s Aid officials were able to offer him for adoption in 1974 to a couple from Georgian Bay. They flew to Newfoundland, picked him up in Bay Bulls and, then back in Ontario, finalized the adoption in Simcoe County.

He was 4 and had already been through three foster homes. With two fair, blue-eyed siblings, he realized he was different but didn’t know about his Inuit birthright until he was 11. He didn’t meet his biological mother until 2006.

He says the biggest loss was growing up without the rich language and culture of his birth. For that reason, he believes authorities should have focused on finding aboriginal families for the children. Lackie, who lives in Toronto, says: “I always felt as if a big part of my life was missing.”

His adoptive parents were kind, but unable to preserve his heritage. He has spent the last few years learning about the Inuit culture and taking classes in the Inuktitut language.

For the first time, too, he met his sister who lives in the U.S. They were separated and he says she doesn’t qualify for the class action suit because she’s an American citizen.

During the certification hearing in 2010, Wilson cites an exchange with Superior Court Justice Paul Perell. He says Perell inquired what would happen if 16,000 Jews in Canada similarly lost their cultural identity.

Wilson paraphrases his response: “Well, your honour, there would be a huge uproar if 16,000 Jews lost their culture . . . (as there would be) with 16,000 Muslims or 16,000 Hindus.”

This prompted a clarification that only with First Nations people is there a clear constitutional obligation by the federal government.

A decision on the appeal — before a three-member tribunal that includes Associate Chief Justice J. Douglas Cunningham — is expected this fall.

Since the Toronto case began, similar claims have been launched in B.C. and Saskatchewan.”

VIDEO: ‘I will never give up,’ plaintiff says after Ottawa blocks aboriginal lawsuit
[The Star 11/5/11 by Linda Diebel]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update: “Nearly half of children under 14 in foster care in Canada are aboriginal  children — a number that exceeds even the grimmest estimates of a leading First  Nations’ child welfare advocate.

Newly released data from the National Household Survey suggest that, of the  approximately 30,000 children in care in Canada in 2011, 14,225 were  aboriginal.

Overall, four per cent of aboriginal children were in care, compared to a  scant 0.3 per cent of non-aboriginal children, or 15,345 children.

“It’s tragic, because these numbers far outstrip even our projections,” said  Cindy Blackstock, executive director of the  First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada. Her figures had  suggested aboriginals made up “30 to 40 per cent of the kids” in foster  care.

“What people need to know is that the factors driving these children into  foster care are not abuse-related,” she said. “That doesn’t mean that sexual and  physical abuse does not happen in our communities. It does, and we need to  courageously deal with it.”

But neglect, fuelled by poverty, poor housing and substance misuse, is the  main factor behind the over-representation of aboriginal children in care, she  said. “Those are all things that child welfare can do something about,”  Blackstock said.

“What we have here is a very dire statistic for children who, just like their  parents in many cases, are being removed from their families because of state  neglect,” Blackstock said. “The government is simply not giving these children  the same opportunity to grow up with their families that all other Canadian  children enjoy.”

A spokesperson for federal Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt said  Aboriginal children in care “is a responsibility shared between the federal  government, the provinces and territories and Aboriginal communities.

“We are moving forward with partners to implement an enhanced prevention  approach to better ensure that children get the services they need,” said  spokesperson Andrea Richer.

Children raised in foster care tend to do more poorly in school and are more  likely to experience depression and substance abuse, Blackstock said.

“We should spend all the energy we can to keep kids safely in their  families,” she said. “I’m not a utopian thinker. I think some kids do need to be  in foster care. But not at the rates that we’re seeing.”

Less than half of aboriginal children lived in homes with both of their  parents, compared to more than three-quarters of non-aboriginal children,  according to the survey. And 34 per cent of aboriginal children – about 135,000  – lived in a lone-parent family, twice the ratio of non-aboriginal children.  Most of those single parents are women.

More than one-quarter of Canada’s aboriginal population were 14 and under,  and nearly one-fifth were ages 15 to 24, according to the voluntary survey,  which replaced the mandatory long-form census the Conservative government  scrapped in 2010.

Statisticians caution there is no way of knowing how good or bad the  information is from the National Household Survey. The voluntary nature of the  survey leaves gaps in the data from groups that tend not to respond to voluntary  surveys, including aboriginals, new immigrants and low-income families. Experts  believe the data should provide a fairly accurate broad scale picture of Canada,  but that the smaller the group surveyed, the less reliable the information.

The rising numbers of aboriginal youths accompany the overall steady growth  in First Nations, Metis and Inuit populations, which now number more than 1.4  million combined. That means aboriginals are 4.3 per cent of Canada’s overall  population, compared to 3.8 per cent in 2006 and 2.8 per cent in 1996.

Between 2006 and 2011, the aboriginal population increased at a rate of 20  per cent, compared to the five-per-cent increase in the non-aboriginal  population. The median age of the aboriginal population in 2011 was 28, compared  to 41 for non-aboriginals.

The growing younger population is due to higher fertility rates and shorter  life expectancy among aboriginals, the survey says.

But experts have also noted that legislative changes, court rulings and the  combination of an increase in indigenous pride and decreased discrimination have  prompted many people to report their aboriginal ancestry.

The data regarding family circumstances of aboriginal children also  underscore the importance, highlighted by recent studies, that the circumstances  of early childhood can have on later educational performance.

Aboriginal children ages four and under were somewhat less likely to be in  foster care than those who were older (3.1% versus 3.9% of those aged five to  14).

Even then, “it’s a devastating number. It makes your stomach boil,” said Ken  Coates, Canada Research Chair in regional innovation and an expert on aboriginal  issues at the University of Saskatchewan.

The numbers underscore “a tragic legacy that we don’t talk about as openly as  we should in Canada,” Coates said. “What you’re seeing is the impact on children  on family breakdown, alcohol or drug abuse and cultural loss in aboriginal  communities.”

Ontario Regional Chief Stan Beardy, whose organization represents Ontario’s  133 First Nations, said the household survey numbers reflect the  intergenerational fallout of the residential schools system. “A large number of  our First Nation elders — grandparents, parents — spent years in residential  schools, from the time they were five or six years old, until their mid-teens,”  he said.

“You don’t learn healthy parenting skills when you grow up in an  institution.”

Allan Adam, chief of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in Alberta, said  more resources are needed to help parents “provide adequate living conditions  for their loved ones” and reduce the number of children in state care.”

 

‘Tragic’ number of aboriginal children in foster care stuns even the experts

[Montreal Gazette 5/8/13 by Michael Woods and Sharon Kirkey]