Canada has timely appealed the ruling that the state must pay billions in compensation to indigenous people who were forcibly sent to boarding schools for Aboriginal children. At the same time, the government announced that it would not pursue the appeal for two months in order to clarify the matter out of court through talks with the plaintiffs during this time, Kathpress reported today.
The government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it was not against compensation, but it had problems with jurisdiction and the allocation of the money, the BBC reported yesterday.
On September 29, Canada’s federal court upheld a 2016 ruling that the government underfunded child welfare for indigenous people compared to that for non-indigenous children. According to the court, members of the First Nations who were sent to boarding schools as children for some kind of re-education are to be compensated with 40,000 Canadian dollars (about 27,900 euros). The case had created tension between the First Nations and the government.
Activists urged the government not to take action against the verdict. Trudeau, who was re-elected in September, had promised when he took office in 2015 to strengthen and restore ties with the indigenous communities.