Honour human rights tribunal ruling on compensation for Indigenous kids in care, Manitoba leaders tell feds

After a ruling Friday from Canada's Human Rights Tribunal focused on children incare on reserves, one Manitoba grand chiefhas a message for the federal government pay up and get to work on making the system better.

In a decision deliveredFriday, the tribunal ordered the federal governmentto pay $40,000 to each child who was in child and family services care on reserve at anypoint from Jan. 1, 2006, to a date to be determined by the tribunal. That amount isthe maximum allowed under the Canadian Human Rights Act.

The order also includes payments to some of their parents and grandparentsof those children.

The decision is based on a landmark January 2016 tribunal ruling which found the government discriminated against First Nations children by under-funding on-reserve child welfare services.

• Ottawa ordered to compensate First Nations children impacted by on-reserve child welfare system

No amount of moneycould compensate for the lost time and social dysfunction that has been caused by CFS, says JerryDaniels, grand chief of Manitoba's Southern Chiefs' Organization.

But fighting the order in court or delaying a way to start payments should not be an option the federal government considers, he said.

"They should honour it and I think they need to shift policy right now. They need to tell their bureaucrats to get out of the way. They need to transfer control [of CFS systems and funding] to First Nations," Daniels told CBC News.

Danielssaysthere are currently approximately 4,500 children in care within the communities the Southern Chiefs' Organizationrepresents.

If Ottawa were to compensate just those people, it would mean around $180 million, he says but the payments would extend back years, applying topeople who were in careand to family members as well.

"They have been under-funding child welfare for decades now. Now, they are getting the consequences of that," Daniels said.

"But the consequences are more than that. The consequences are family dysfunction, lack of supports."

Daniels's sentiments were echoed in a statement from the grand chief ofManitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, which represents northern First Nations.

"For far too long, Canada has failed to act in the best interests of First Nations children and families," saidGrand Chief Garrison Settee. "I hope the federal government will comply with this ruling. Our children deserve respect."

The tribunal ordered Ottawato enter discussions with the First Nations Family Caring Society and the Assembly of First Nations which together filed the initial human rights complaint in 2007 to determine the best independent process to distribute the compensation.

The tribunal gave the parties until Dec. 10 to come back with proposals.

Federal Indigenous Services Minister Seamus O'Regansaidin statement that Ottawa would review the tribunal's order.