The Price of Torture
CANADA
Canada will pay about $31 billion in compensation for Indigenous children and families who suffered discrimination while in foster care, a move that highlights the country’s coming to terms with the government’s historical treatment of its native population, BBC reported.
The decision comes months after a top court upheld a 2016 ruling that found the government had underfunded First Nations services compared with those for non-indigenous children.
The court ordered the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to pay about $31,000 to each child who was in the on-reserve welfare system after 2006.
The government initially said it would appeal the verdict but relented amid an ongoing public outcry following the discovery of more than 1,100 unmarked graves at the sites of former residential schools.
Officials said that the compensation will be used to settle the 2016 ruling, two other lawsuits and to reform the current Indigenous child welfare system.
National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations RoseAnne Archibald said the compensation package is “a testament to how many of our children were ripped from their families and communities.”
About 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to go to Canada’s infamous residential schools in an attempt to assimilate them – forcing them to abandon their native tongue and convert to Christianity. Operating between 1874 and 1996, the controversial system separated children from their parents by sending them to boarding schools, where they faced malnutrition, as well as physical and sexual abuse.
The Roman Catholic Church operated up to 70 percent of the schools but Pope Francis has yet to issue an official apology.
Earlier this year, the pontiff said he will visit Canada to help with reconciliation efforts but a date has not been set yet.
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