Good afternoon, members. It's an honour to be here on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Nation and in the presence of the national chief and the other delegates at the table.
In 2007 I stood with the Assembly of First Nations and we had to file a human rights complaint against the federal government to get them to treat little children on reserves equally because the federal government was so substantially and so consciously underfunding these services with dire results, resulting in another generation of first nations children being unnecessarily separated from their families. It was a repetition of the dark chapter of residential schools.
I would have never anticipated that the federal government would have fought that case so vigorously for nine years. They fought it when its own documents showed that it was providing significantly less to first nations children than all other children in the country received, despite its documents showing the perils of the deprivation of breathing equipment to four-year-old kids because they were from first nations.
On January 26 of this year the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal issued a landmark decision, the only decision we know about in the western industrialized world, that found a federal government racially discriminating against 163,000 first nations children. The tribunal ordered it to stop. Like many of you around the table when the ministers of justice and indigenous affairs welcomed the decision, I breathed a sigh of relief. Here we are now, in September, and the tribunal held jurisdiction over the federal government, concerned as it was about the repeated pattern of the federal government not acting on recommendations that were clearly before it to reform.
In April, unsatisfied with the federal government's progress in implementing the decision to stop this racial discrimination against children, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal issued a further compliance order against the federal government and ordered it to implement something called Jordan's principle immediately, so that first nations children can access government services on the same terms. The timing of April is important because that means that the tribunal had at its disposal budget 2016. You will remember, members, that I was here at that time, and I said that it fell sufficiently short of what was needed.
Once more, I hoped the federal government would move with dispatch to ensure that they followed the law and they remediated racial discrimination against children. That failed to happen, and on September 16 a second compliance order was issued by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal for the federal government's failure to remediate the discrimination. I think we can all agree around this table that it's unconscionable that a nation such as ours that promotes human rights and that values human decency would racially discriminate against children. It's also illegal that the government has failed to comply with three legal orders. What I'm suggesting to you is not discretionary funding. It is something that the government is under court order to do. The burden is with the federal government to prove that the racial discrimination has stopped. It's not enough to make an announcement. You have to prove that it has remediated the discrimination at the level of children.
I have two quick points here. I've included a substantial brief citing the decisions and the relevant sections of those decisions, and on the final page of the brief the action needed. To put it briefly, the Canadian government needs to follow the law. It needs to stop racially discriminating against children. It needs to release—in our estimation for this year alone—the shortfall of $155 million. It also needs to deliver training to senior staff and to members of Parliament on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and on these tribunal decisions, so people are in a position to act differently in the spirit of the Prime Minister's commitments toward the calls to action. Remember, this is the number one call to action for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The other is that the Government of Canada must fully comply with this definition of Jordan's principle. Currently the federal government is using a definition of Jordan's principle by limiting equitable access for children's services only to children with disabilities and critical short-term illnesses. Who in Canada would be willing to have their child only treated equitably if they were so disadvantaged that they had a critical illness and a disability? It makes no sense.
The other piece is the compliance with the release of the data. The tribunal has found it so difficult to get the data to support the federal government's contention that it has taken adequate action. It has actually had to order the federal government to provide that data. The first deadline is this Friday; the second one, October 31.
In summary, I think we're better than this as a country. We are better than leaving children behind. At this committee your task is to balance the priorities, but if you choose not to treat children equally, then I want you to consider heartily, what are the children losing to? What's more important than them?
Thank you very much.