Aboriginals rally at ’60s Scoop courthouse ahead of class-action hearing

By Colin Perkel, The Canadian Press

Scores of aboriginals from across Ontario rallied in Toronto today ahead of a landmark court hearing on the so-called ’60s Scoop.

Some travelled for up to two days to lend their support.

Speakers, including the lead plaintiff, denounced what they view as the “cultural genocide” perpetrated against them by the Canadian government.

They mourned the loss of their “stolen” children and urged the government to make good on its promise of a new era in Canadian-aboriginal relations.

At issue is the apprehension of indigenous children by child-welfare officials, who placed the young wards with non-native families.

Speakers said the practice was a deliberate effort to assimilate aboriginal children.

“I just want to say to Canada: We will not allow the harm of our children. We need to bring our children home, the ones that were lost, the one’s that were
stolen,” lead plaintiff Marcia Brown Martel told the crowd.

“(It’s) such a harm and injustice as a human being to have our children taken from us.”

Martel, a member of the Temagami First Nation near Kirkland Lake, Ont., was one of an estimated 16,000 aboriginal children who ended up in non-native homes. She later discovered the Canadian government had declared her original identity dead.

The $1.3-billion class action argues that Canada failed to protect the children’s cultural heritage with devastating consequences to victims. Their lawyers are pressing for summary judgment in the legal battle started in February 2009.

Reporter Alanna Kelly was reporting live from court. See her updates below or at this mobile-friendly link.

The ’60s Scoop depended on a federal-provincial arrangement in which Ontario child welfare services placed as many as 16,000 aboriginal children with non-native families from December 1965 to December 1984.

Lead plaintiff, Marcia Brown Martel, a member of the Temagami First Nation near Kirkland Lake, Ont., was taken by child welfare officials and adopted by a non-native family as a child. She later discovered the Canadian government had declared her original identity dead.

The unproven claim alleges the children suffered a devastating loss of cultural identity that Canada negligently failed to protect. The children, the suit states, suffered emotional, psychological and spiritual harm from the lost connection to their aboriginal heritage. They want $85,000 for each affected person.

Their lawyer, Jeffery Wilson, called the lawsuit the first case in the western world about “whether a state government has an obligation to take steps to protect and preserve the cultural identity of its indigenous people.”

The motion for summary judgment essentially calls on Superior Court Justice Edward Belobaba to decide the case based on the evidence the court already has without a full trial.

Canada has tried on several occasions to have the case thrown out as futile. Among other things, Ottawa argues it was acting in the best interests of the children and within the social norms of the day.

The one-day hearing was expected to adjourn until Dec. 1 to allow the government time to file its expert evidence.

Sixties Scoop survivors and supporters gather for a demonstration in Toronto on Tuesday, August 23, 2016. Scores of aboriginals from across Ontario rallied in Toronto today ahead of a landmark court hearing on the so-called '60s Scoop. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Michelle Siu

Last week, Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett said she would like to see that happen, a theme picked up on at the morning rally. Speakers, including New Democrat Charlie Angus, urged the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau to be on the “right side of history” and make good on his promise of a new era in Canadian-aboriginal relations.

Before court ended, Wilson cited a few words in Algonquin which he spelled out.

“Ati kati ci wepik,” he said. “We must never let this happen again.”

In an interview, Glen Hare, deputy grand council chief of the Anishinabek Nation, said he planned on doing his part to ensure it doesn’t happen again. His one regret, he said, is once having signed adoption papers for one of his band’s babies, who he believes was taken abroad.

“I will never sign another adoption, I don’t care who it is. You can lock me up first or shoot me,” Hare said. “Our kids are not for sale, that’s the bottom line.”

 

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