A rock with the message "Every Child Matters" painted on it sits at a memorial outside the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, in Kamloops, B.C., on Thursday, July 15, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck DARRYL DYCK

By The Canadian Press/paNOW

Indigenous groups applaud as Supreme Court upholds Ottawa’s Indigenous child welfare law

Feb 9, 2024 | 3:00 PM

Indigenous communities and leaders across the country cheered Friday as the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the federal government’s child welfare law, affirming that First Nations, Métis and Inuit have sole authority over the protection of their children.

Ottawa’s law affirmed the right of Indigenous Peoples to run their child protection services and included sections that said Indigenous legislation had the force of federal law and could supersede provincial law.

The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) applauded the decision, having intervened in the Supreme Court case in support of the Act.

The FSIN said that First Nations are in the best position to raise healthy and happy children.

“Under federal and provincial colonial and racist policies such as Indian Residential Schools, the Sixties Scoop, and the Millenium Scoop, First Nations children have been exploited, commodified, and enslaved,” said Chief Bobby Cameron. “These ways have disrupted our Nations and killed our children. We have never given up our Inherent and Human Rights to care for and protect our own children within our own traditional systems. We have never surrendered this right to the governments, under whose systems our children have suffered and died for over a century. These foreign systems fail our children.”

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The Metis Nation of Saskatchewa (MN-S) also celebrated the decision, stating it’s a crucial step in advancing and protecting the well-being of Métis children and youth.

“This is a great day for our Métis Nation in Saskatchewan,” said MN–S President Glen McCallum. “Today’s monumental decision by the Supreme Court is a confirmation of the work our Métis government has been doing for citizens in protecting and strengthening our families to preserve Métis identity, culture, values and language for future generations.”

“Just as families across the country have the right to raise their children in culturally appropriate surroundings, so too do Canada’s Métis, First Nations and Inuit peoples,” added MN-S Vice President and Minister of Justice Michelle LeClair.

Assembly of First Nations national chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak called the decision a significant step forward.

“First Nations have never surrendered their jurisdiction over their children and families, which has existed since time immemorial,” Woodhouse Nepinak said.

“First Nations continue to have the inherent and constitutional right to care for our children and families, along with our sacred rights from Creator to raise our children surrounded by our cultures, languages, and traditions.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Indigenous children have “for far too long” been put in foster homes, sometimes far away from their communities, that were not grounded in Indigenous language and traditions.

“That has perhaps gotten them out of harm’s way in the immediate, but has left them with scarring — loss of identity, loss of language and a disconnection from their cultures that has had devastating impacts.”

Asked whether, if elected, he would stand by the law, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said his party believes in “more autonomy for First Nations communities and less paternalistic control by government.”

He said the Conservatives would “respect the rights of First Nations families to raise their children.”

The Act respecting First Nation, Inuit, and Métis youth and families was first introduced in 2019 and the Bill received final assent in 2021.