Cindy Blackstock, the executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society spoke out about how Canada and the provinces deal with children who need medical help on reserve.
“If you don’t have water or a house parenting programs aren’t going to do you a lot of good,” she said. “Unless we create equity across all those dimensions the over-representation is going to continue.”
Blackstock won a discrimination case in the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT) against Canada where she proved the federal government spent less on First Nations child welfare when compared to what the provinces spend off reserve.
Earlier this year the CHRT issued its fifth non-compliance order against Canada.
But she says the provinces have a role to play as well.
“If that solution the government agrees that’s a good solution and they still don’t implement it and you’ve tried everything I think that yeah you should go to litigation because the bottom line is that kids should come first,” she told the inquiry.
