The new Indigenous services minister was introduced to the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) this week.
And Marc Miller promised that Canada would compensate children in care in due course.
“We have that track record with respect to the Indian Day School settlements, the residential school settlements and the Sixties Scoop.”
But Cindy Blackstock, who continues to fight the Liberals before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, still doesn’t trust the government’s track record.
“Even as a repeat offender against First Nations children, it still wants to call the shots on what’s gonna happen with these kids,” said the executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society.
Another hot topic at the special chiefs’ assembly in Ottawa was child welfare reform or Bill C-92.
The bill, which comes into effect Jan. 1, is supposed to give control over child welfare systems to Indigenous governments.
But Kevin Hart, the AFN’s regional chief in Manitoba, says First Nations control needs funding.
“Definitely, let Canada know that there’s gonna be a need of roughly about $3.5 billion over the next 5 years,” he told Nation to Nation.
