This week Canadian First Nations (Indigenous tribes) and the federal government reached a $31.5B ($40B US) settlement to both fund child welfare reforms and compensate children and their families for harms inflicted by the system.
Half of this Agreement will fund reparations to the 115,000 children removed from their homes since 1991, and half to repair Indigenous child welfare programs.
The Agreement emphasizes equally funding First Nation child welfare on a par with White programs and preventing removal of Indigenous children from their families.
The U.S. is unlikely to emulate this Canadian leadership. The fact that we remain the only country not to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child symbolizes our relative callousness towards children. But, we may learn something from our neighbors about how to better balance child safety with improved family preservation practices.
Listen to this blog post, as well as in-depth commentary and analysis, in this week’s podcast here or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Read the transcript of this blog and podcast here.