Northern Chief celebrates Sixties Scoop ruling

Chief Marcia Brown Martel of Beaverhouse First Nation near Kirkland Lake, Ontario, is excited and relieved that a Toronto judge has ruled in favour of the Sixties Scoop class action lawsuit. The suit, which Chief Brown Martel has led during an eight-year court saga, represents some 16,000 plaintiffs who were part of the federal government’s placement of First Nation children in families outside their culture and communities between 1965 and 1984.

Brown Martel is hoping the federal government will now negotiate with the plaintiffs instead of appealing the decision.

“I want to see that the government indeed acknowledges that the Sixties Scoop has affected our First Nations and the identities of children who are now adults,” she said. “We also see the reality now of what is known as the Millennial Scoop. This is still happening today. Our Aboriginal children are still being taken away by child welfare agencies and placed in environments that do not acknowledge or provide for them as First Nation children in a specific way.”

Superior Court Justice Edward Belobaba ruled that the federal government had a common law duty of care to take reasonable steps to prevent on-reserve children from losing their Indigenous identity after they were removed and placed in non-Indigenous care. Brown Martel explained that the ruling in the $1.3 billion class action suit is not about the money primarily, but has also to do with the federal government taking responsibility for their actions regarding the Sixties Scoop, making an apology to the victims, providing for a healing process and negotiating a settlement in good faith.

“Our success with this ruling now means that the federal government will have to deal with us once and for all. I have been part of this fight for justice since 2002 and have been participating in the class action lawsuit through the courts for the past eight years. This should have been settled long ago but the federal government has been stalling us all along. Now we have a way to move forward,” explained Brown Martel.

As a child she was one of the thousands who were taken from their families and their communities to be placed with non-Native families. As a teenager she had to deal with the breakup of her adoptive non-Native parents and returned to her home traditional lands at Beaverhouse First Nation. As pointed out in the class action lawsuit, the abduction of these children caused them to be raised without any link to their traditional culture. That fact, amplified by many other realities, caused much pain, mental problems, addictions and suicides over the years.

“This is about Canada and a healing that has come out of this for all of us. This is all about standing up for common regular everyday Canadians who were wronged. This was about more than just the children who were taken, as it affected mothers, fathers, uncles, aunts, cousins and communities. This was damage done on a wide-scale basis. This is not over yet and we will continue on this journey to provide the healing process needed to go forward,” said Brown Martel.

She gave thanks to lawyers Jeffery Wilson, Brenda Christen and Jessica Braude of Wilson Christen LLB who handled the class action lawsuit. As well she thanked Nishnawbe-Aski Nation, Chiefs of Ontario and the Assembly of First Nations for their support and sharing of information over the years.

According to Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Carolyn Bennett, the next step is to have a conversation about the things that really matter to the survivors and to be inclusive and to make sure that the history is well known. Bennett noted in an interview with the CBC that she is supportive of healing and wants to prevent a similar story from happening again.

Although much of the stalling regarding the lawsuit came from the previous Conservative government during the Harper years, the Liberals have recently suggested meeting outside of the court action for dealing with the situation. At this point with the ruling of the Ontario judge, the federal government must deal with the suit directly. Bennett has claimed that the government will not appeal the ruling.