Canada

Canada has reached a historic tentative agreement with Indigenous people to compensate them for mistreatment by the child welfare system.

In rejecting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s position, a Canadian judge has set the stage for Ottawa to pay billions of dollars in compensation to Indigenous children who were removed from their homes and systematically given inadequate child welfare support.

Half of children born to mothers in foster care will also enter into the child welfare system by their second birthday, according to a study published in this month’s issue of the journal Pediatrics.  

Recent legislative action addressing the severely adverse outcomes that First Nations children face in Canada’s child welfare system has led to a national discussion. Earlier this year, the Canadian Human Rights Commission issued a decision against the government in a 2007 lawsuit filed by the First Nations and Family Caring Society and the Assembly of First Nations.

The United States and its northern neighbor are plagued by many of the same child welfare system challenges. Recent reports have suggested there is a “foster-parent crisis” in Canada, citing a drastic lack of qualified foster parents relative to the number of children in need of foster homes.

By Melody Ann Owen Vera, an Indian residential school survivor, describes years of fear and desperation growing up. In her words, the experience left her with a “lack of communication skills and the closeness learned was not healthy.”

The Dave Thomas Foundation released yesterday the results of a five-year survey of national attitudes toward foster care adoption in the United States, along with the first ever Canadian Foster Care Adoption Attitudes Survey.