NDP, Green Party call for new law to fix problems with Indigenous class action lawsuit settlements

The federal NDP and Green Party are calling on the federal government to introduce a new law similar to one used by the U.S. for 9/11 victims to address problems with six Indigenous class action lawsuit settlement agreements.

Nunavut NDP MP Lori Idlout and Green Party Deputy Leader Jonathan Pedneault sent a letter to three federal ministers on Wednesday urging them to create an Indigenous Survivors Act.

The proposed legislation would allow First Nations, Métis and Inuit survivors mistreated by the federal government to apply for compensation and update their claims under the act after deadlines pass in their class action settlement agreements.

“The fact that the government of Canada mistreated Indigenous Peoples is one thing,” Idlout and Pedneault wrote in a letter obtained by CBC News, adding that the “strict deadlines imposed for claims to be completed” is just another in a “long list of injustices.”

Jonathan Pedneault, deputy leader of the Green Party of Canada, is urging the federal government to create an Indigenous Survivors Act. (Canadian Press/Spencer Colby)

Idlout and Pedneault said there are precedents for such a move, including the U.S. government’s 9/11 victim compensation fund, which has a deadline that extends to 2090.

They also point to Ontario’s compensation plan for the contaminated blood scandal, which provided up to $25,000 to people who developed hepatitis C through tainted blood before 1986 and after 1990, without any deadline to apply.

Greens and NDP say claims processes too short

Their letter was sent to Justice Minister Arif Virani, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, who is also deputy prime minister.

The offices of the three ministers did not respond to a request for comment from CBC News.

The proposal follows a CBC News investigation that uncovered allegations that federal Indian day school survivors were shortchanged and retraumatized by the compensation process for a multi-billion dollar settlement agreement with Ottawa.

Idlout and Pedneault called for that deal to be reopened. Now, they want the government to create a fund under the act with an undetermined but finite amount of money to pay individual compensation for outstanding and updated claims.

The six Indigenous class action settlements they want the proposed act to address are the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, the Newfoundland and Labrador residential school settlement, the Sixties Scoop settlement, the federal Indian day school settlement, the day school scholar settlement and the child welfare settlement.

The application periods for these settlements ranged between six months to five years. Any survivor who missed those deadlines currently has no recourse unless they opted out of the agreements.

The Greens and NDP are calling for a trauma-informed process to fix still outstanding issues from the settlements, which were supposed to provide a measure of justice.

“Because of these extremely short deadlines and the ways in which these claims, these settlements were set up, they either didn’t get the amount they were entitled to or didn’t even apply,” Pedneault said.