Murray Wood: Who's being fooled this April 1?
Murray Wood says every day is April Fools Day in the disinformation age and, as ever, some people will never believe the...
In September, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ordered the federal government to pay billions of dollars in compensation to First Nations children and their families who were separated by the child-welfare system.
On Friday, Ottawa said it was appealing that ruling. It cited the Dec. 10 deadline as being not enough time to set up a proper compensation system.
Saskatoon Tribal Council Chief Mark Arcand said Monday that while he understands that concern, he thinks the government should give people a more realistic timeline instead of just leaving it open-ended.
“What I’m suggesting the federal government to do is to say, ‘What is the timeline then? March 30? March 31, 2020? What is acceptable?’ ” he said.
“I’d rather hear that instead of no timeline because we don’t want to wait two or three years for this ruling to come into effect, and families fall through the cracks again.”
Arcand says he has been fielding a lot of calls from many people about what the appeal means for them.
“What I see here is an investment into the wrongs that have been done through the child-family system. We’re really trying to make it better for these kids and setting them up for the proper mechanisms so they can succeed,” he said.
Arcand said at the end of the day, it is important for everyone to work together to make sure no kids or families go through such a terrible situation again.
