The wheels are officially in motion for a proposed class-action lawsuit involving Inuit children in the northern Quebec region of Nunavik.
On Monday, a trio of law firms filed an application in Quebec Superior Court on behalf of all Inuit children who endured “decades of allegedly discriminatory and unlawful underfunding of child welfare” and other essential services in the north.
If approved, the class-action would impact all Inuit children who were taken into the Quebec child welfare system since 1975, their parents or caregiving grandparents, as well as all Inuit children who sought an essential service and “faced a denial, delay, or gap in services,” according to the court application.
In their application, Sotos Class Actions, Kugler Kandestin LLP, and Coupal Chauvelot allege both the Quebec and federal governments have “breached class members’ constitutional right to equality” by “failing to provide child welfare and other essential health and social services on a level that is substantively equal to what any other Canadian child receives.”
“Instead of addressing these chronic failures, the two governments evaded responsibility, and each pointed to each other as the one with the obligation and jurisdiction to provide the service needed,” according to a joint statement released by the three law firms on Tuesday.
The petitioners in the suit, Lucy Tookalook and Tanya Jones, are both survivors of the child welfare system in Nunavik.
According to the release, they are speaking out on behalf of youth who were “unnecessarily placed in state care in droves” or who were “overlooked by the system altogether.”
“I am taking action today because I want to bring justice to my people – my people who have been treated as less than human for decades,” Tookalook said in a statement.
To read more of Lindsay Richardson's article, please click here.
Comments (0)