ABSTRACT
The Government of Canada has a long and tragic history of separating First Nations children from their families. The government forcibly removed First Nations children aged 5 to 15 years of age and placed them in residential schools run by Christian churches and controlled by the federal government with the aim of assimilating First Nations peoples. Children attending schools were banned from speaking their Indigenous languages and practicing their cultures as well as their spiritual traditions. On 25 February 2013, the Canadian Government appeared before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal to face allegations that its long-standing and inequitable provision of child welfare services to First Nations children and families on reserves is discriminatory. Leaders in Indigenous child rights from both countries have studied the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal on First Nations child welfare, travelled to Canada to attend at the hearings to see if a similar approach could end longstanding government based inequities for Indigenous children in their respective countries.
