A 60s Scoop survivor discusses Ottawa’s compensation offer

“The government is really cheap! It’s really surreal and really insulting, considering all of the things that Indigenous people have gone through.” Nakuset, the First Nations activist and Director of the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal, was speaking about the federal government’s recently announced $800 million compensation for survivors of the 60s Scoop.

Nakuset was separated from her mother as a young child. She and her sister Sonia were bounced around from relative to relative because their mother, an alcoholic and residential-school survivor, couldn’t care for them. She then became one of the estimated 20,000 Aboriginal children who were taken from their communities and fostered or adopted out to primarily white families in Canada, the US or Western Europe in a practice called the 60s Scoop.

According to Nakuset there are major problems with the $800 million payout. The first is that, last February, an Ontario Superior Court judge in the original Ontario class-action lawsuit ruled that survivors of the 60s Scoop were entitled to significantly more.

“The government tries to pay us as little as possible,” said Nakuset. “If I’m part of the 60s Scoop, my background is erased, I am no longer considered an Indian. In Ontario, the judge said they should be awarded the $1.3 billion they are asking for.”

Instead, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett announced that about 16,000 claimants could receive compensation up to a maximum $50,000. It will be the actual claim is going to be the difficult part, according to Nakuset.

It is only those who were adopted out who are entitled to compensation, not the ones who spent their lives in foster care. Nakuset said the government likely did this on purpose, in order to pit one against the other.

“My sister was in foster care and had it rough. She was bounced around and saw nothing good,” said Nakuset.

And then there is that other elephant in the room – having to prove that you were actually part of the 60s Scoop. Nakuset says this will be significantly harder than first imagined.

With the residential-school system, there was a registry. With the 60s Scoop, Nakuset notes, the social workers in charge were not creating records for all of the removed children. While they frequently charged $5000 to $20,000 per child to adoptive families, social workers often skipped background checks to see if adopters had a history of pedophilia or child abuse.

“Those social workers weren’t doing their jobs. All they did was remove the children and place them elsewhere. Many were adopted out to the US. I know a lot of people in the States who are following this saying, ‘I am from Canada but I’ve been living in the US all this time’,” explained Nakuset.

While there may not have been documents relating to these adoptions, there were catalogues. This, Nakuset says, is how a Jewish family in Montreal, which tried to erase her identity, adopted her. By no means, she says, is it accurate enough evidence that would hold up in court.

“[Child welfare activist] Cindy Blackstock said if you get $25,000, it works out to $2.53 per day – that is what it comes down to for your experience. The way they did the adoptions, they didn’t do background checks. The faster you sent them out, the better. Get rid of them, get rid of them, get rid of them!