Canadian Human Rights - How Much is Enough - or Too Much?

There can be no doubt that the Canadian Government has not provided anywhere near adequate services to Indigenous people. From shoddy housing to poor medical care, from non-functioning or none existing water treatment systems to an education system that feels as if it is designed to encourage drop-outs, the government has consistently done far less than the bare minimum. Regardless of various governments promises to "fix" the problem, nothing seems to change. The result of a century and a half of poor decisions based on bad information and racial bias has profoundly damaged communities, families and individuals. In 2016, the Canadian Human Rights found that the government of Canada had discriminated against First Nations children by under-funding on-reserve child welfare services. On this past Friday, that Tribunal ordered the government to pay each child who had been affected by that system $40,000.00 as some sort of recompensation for the lack of support and care.

The debate should never be about whether or not it happened. Of course, the child welfare system on reserves was underfunded. Nor can one disagree about the fact that if children do not get the kinds of support they need - when they need it - irreparable harm can occur. However, I think there is legitimate place for us to discuss the amount of money awarded and of what benefit it will be.

I think one of the reasons why various courts and tribunals have the right to impose fines/financial punishments against people or organizations is so "teach" those organizations or people a lesson. If one fines a corporation for doing something that they should not have done - ideally the shareholders of that corporation lose money and therefore tell the executives to not do that again. In other words, people experience a direct consequence from the bad behaviour and at least theoretically, learn to not do it again. When a large corporation such as Ford or Volkswagen face substantial fines - they do change their behaviour or companies that produce Oxycontin or tobacco go out of business

Fining the Canadian government because it did not provide enough services will not teach anyone a lesson. Neither the politicians or any of the bureaucrats that were involved will ever face any sort of consequence for their decision. The taxpayers will pay the bill - and nothing will change. If the tribunal were fining the government to teach them a lesson - it is not going to work.

The other reason for the tribunal to award $40,000 to each individual (or in some cases their parents or grandparents) is to compensate them for the lost time and social dysfunction that the lack of services created. Giving a consistent amount makes almost no sense to me. It assumes that all children were affected equally, that all of the children had bad experiences and that all of the children were worse off than if nothing had happened and they had stayed with their caregivers. None of that is true. Some children, depending upon their age and how they were supported and by whom would have had different experiences. For example, some may have lost all contact with their natural families - perhaps others less so. I am not sure how one decides who deserves a higher form of compensation than others, but it strikes me that giving everyone the same amount is just lazy. It also suggests a strange bias in that it assumes that everyone is the same.

Finally, it is a lot of money (some reports suggest that the payout could be upwards of two billion dollars). Within First Nation communities there are many reasons why there can be such social dysfunction that a social service agency needs to become involved. Most of those reasons are a direct result of our government's inaction or action. If the social fabric of a community has broken down, it would seem to me that we collectively as a nation, must address the root concerns. To provide expensive band-aids to a percentage of the population does feel like something that will help a community. I fear that the problems will just continue to re-appear.

In a perfect world, there would be both sufficient money and the political will to address all of the problems. We do not live in a perfect world. If we did - these problems would not exist.