Mr. Speaker, this week the Canadian Human Rights Commission took the extraordinary step of issuing a public statement rebuking the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.
There has been a two-year delay in hearing the details of a case brought forward by Cindy Blackstock of the First Nations Child & Family Caring Society and the Assembly of First Nations against the federal government for the underfunding of child welfare agencies on reserves.
This commission said the failure was having a direct impact on the lives of vulnerable children. There are more aboriginal children in foster care now than attended residential schools at the height of that era.
Child welfare advocates across the country have been speaking out about the funding and how it puts aboriginal children at risk: at risk of failure to thrive, at risk of losing attachment to their extended family, at risk of poor health, at risk of poverty, at risk of entering the corrections system at a young age, and at risk, in too many cases, of losing their lives.
I ask all members to join me in demanding better for these vulnerable children. The underfunding of child welfare services on reserves must end.