Last week, law firms in Toronto and Battleford made Saskatchewan the fourth province to register a “Sixties Scoop” class action lawsuit against the federal government.
It is a legal battle, but one fraught with the heaviest emotional baggage imaginable.
“Sixties Scoop” is a term that refers to thousands of Aboriginal children who were “scooped” from their families between 1962 and 1996 and put into foster care or adopted out, largely to middle class non-Aboriginal families.
The Saskatchewan suit, brought by Koskie Minsky LLP of Toronto and Sunchild Law of Battleford, alleges “scooped” children were denied their Aboriginal identity and thereby suffered mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically.
The plaintiffs are seeking $200 million for breach of fiduciary duty (failing to act in the best interest of the children) and $50 million in punitive damages. The legal team is currently looking for class members to join the class action.
The federal government has yet to respond to the Saskatchewan suit, but despite the 2015 election that installed an ostensibly more First Nations-friendly government in Ottawa, it continues to fight the suits. In Ontario Superior Court just last month Canada lawyers argued the government acted in the best interest of the children, according to the social norms of the day and within its legal rights.
The plaintiffs in that case are not even arguing the “scoop” was illegal or that the government was not acting in the best interest of the children, only that it failed in its obligation to maintain oversight of the children’s welfare vis-à-vis preserving their cultural identity.
That case was slated for trial to begin August 23, but government lawyers sought a delay and the justices gave them until December 1. Both sides have hinted they are hoping in the interim they can reach a negotiated settlement.
Canadians like to think we have put these things in our past, that we are superior to, for example, our neighbours to the south who have a race problem, but these legal actions underscore the very pertinent reality that we have a race problem in Canada.
It can be as extreme as those still among us who view First Nations people as many of our ancestors did as savages in need of saving from themselves and who view the horrific problems experienced by many Aboriginal people to this day as the result of defects of character, not the legacy of residential schools and systemic racism.
Our racism can be sympathetic to root causes but foster lament, such as “how long must we continue to pay for the sins of our fathers?”
And it can be as subtle as those who ennoble First Nations culture, while continuing to take a paternalistic attitude toward the people’s well-being.
It can be many things, but it is an ongoing problem, the solutions to which are elusive and extraordinarily complex and one reason why we end up with class action lawsuits.
The beginning is simple, however. We must start with seeing the persons behind the class action. Each and every name that goes on those court documents is a living, breathing human being. A person who was plucked from his or her family, perhaps with good reason, perhaps not, but a person with an individual history, a unique personality and hopes, dreams, problems and fears, just like all of us.
Racism, sexism, ageism, all the ‘isms’ share a common characteristic with class actions in that individual persons become objectified group members, but within every identifiable group there is as much human diversity as there is between groups.
News, such as lawsuits, are bound to evoke strong emotions. Ironically, in due course, the legal issues will be resolved through the most unemotional of processes.
What is left is for all of us to recognize each other’s humanity.
