Indigenous child welfare with Cindy Blackstock

Uncommons with Nate Erskine-Smith

Powerful advocate Cindy Blackstock joins Nate to discuss Indigenous child welfare, including the Human Rights Tribunal decision and judicial review application related the equality of treatment for First Nations children, and compensation to kids for discrimination.

Blackstock is the executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, co-applicant with the Assembly of First Nations in the court case. She is also a professor in the School of Social Work at McGill.
On a previous episode, Nate was joined by Minister Miller to discuss the human rights tribunal case from the government's perspective.
For background, Jordan's principle is named after Jordan River Anderson, a First Nations child who died in hospital at the age of 5 while provincial and federal governments could not agree on who was financially responsible for his home care in a medical foster home. Jordan's Principle is really a child-first principle to ensure that services for First Nations children are not delayed due to jurisdictional disputes. TRC Call to Action number 3 calls on “all levels of government to fully implement Jordan’s Principle.”

To read more about the long history of the case before the Human Rights Tribunal and federal court, you can find the Caring Society's timeline here, and the government's timeline here.

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