The Manitoba Métis Federation has initiated legal action against both the provincial and federal governments after the Red River Métis were predominantly left out of a class action settlement meant for Sixties Scoop survivors.
The term Sixties Scoop describes the period during which thousands of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children were taken from their homes and placed with non-Indigenous adoptive or foster families from 1951 to 1991, resulting in a loss of cultural identity.
In its statement of claim, submitted to the Manitoba Court of King’s Bench on November 18, the MMF accuses both Manitoba and Canada of deliberately permitting, funding, directing, and supervising the Sixties Scoop to further their own “racist, colonial, Euro-Canadian values.”
In 2017, the federal government declared an $800-million settlement for survivors, although many individuals faced lengthy waits for compensation due to numerous delays. By the 2019 deadline, over 34,000 claims were filed, with approximately $25,000 awarded to each eligible survivor.
A significant number of Métis and non-status Indigenous survivors were mostly excluded from the compensation application process.
“More than eight years later, no government has acknowledged the damages endured by the Red River Métis resulting from the Sixties Scoop,” states the MMF’s lawsuit.
According to the MMF, as the national body representing the Red River Métis, it is pursuing this lawsuit on behalf of its entire citizenship to address the collective damages inflicted by the Sixties Scoop.
The suit claims that the actions of Canada and Manitoba breached their responsibilities to the Red River Métis, leading to the loss of Métis culture, language, and identity, as well as disrupting familial ties and the ability to transmit Métis culture and identity to survivors and their descendants.
The allegations remain unproven in court, and no statements of defense have yet been submitted.
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A spokesperson for the Manitoba provincial government declined to comment while the lawsuit is pending. Indigenous Services Canada did not provide a response to CBC’s request for comment ahead of publication.
The MMF’s legal action is in addition to another class action lawsuit for Métis and non-status Sixties Scoop survivors, which was approved by a Federal Court judge in 2021.
In May, a Federal Court judge determined that Canada had no duty of care towards the majority of Métis or non-status Indigenous children since it did not finance the provincial child welfare regulations applicable to them.
While it is “impossible to determine” the exact number of Red River Métis children affected by the Sixties Scoop, the lawsuit estimates the figure to be in the thousands.
The MMF is requesting court declarations stating that the Sixties Scoop violated and continues to violate constitutional, fiduciary, and/or common law responsibilities owed to the Red River Métis, resulting in and perpetuating irreparable cultural, linguistic, and social damages.
Additionally, it seeks punitive and exemplary damages, along with compensation aimed at restoring, safeguarding, and maintaining the linguistic and cultural rights of the Red River Métis.
‘Profound, permanent and ongoing cultural injuries’
According to the MMF, Indigenous children in Manitoba who were taken from their communities during the Sixties Scoop frequently ended up in non-Indigenous households in the United States.
For instance, the lawsuit indicates that during the 1950s, Manitoba and provincial Children’s Aid Society agencies “directly collaborated” with American Catholic welfare organizations in Minnesota to facilitate placements in U.S. homes for Indigenous children in care from Manitoba.
Documentation from that era reveals that a provincial supervisor of Manitoba’s child welfare services referred to children as “part Indian” and of “part Indian origin,” noting that a significant portion of them were Catholic, as stated in the lawsuit.
“Considering that Red River Métis individuals are of mixed heritage and mostly Catholic, the children mentioned in these correspondences were likely Red River Métis,” the lawsuit asserts.
The actions of Manitoba and provincial Children’s Aid Society agencies often rationalized the removal of Red River Métis children from their communities based on “Euro-Canadian assumptions” regarding suitable parenting methods, according to the lawsuit.
In certain instances, social welfare agents presumed that Red River Métis children were neglected since they “failed to acknowledge traditional Red River Métis community-based child-rearing practices where the extended family collectively took responsibility for child upbringing,” the lawsuit claims.
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The suit claims that Manitoba was aware or should have been aware that taking Red River Métis children from their families and communities and placing them with non-Red River Métis adoptive or foster families posed a significant risk to the language, culture, and identity of the Red River Métis as a whole.
An assessment conducted in 1985 by Manitoba provincial court Associate Chief Judge Edwin Kimelman determined that the longstanding practice of removing Indigenous children from their communities constituted “cultural genocide,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit further asserts that the Sixties Scoop fits the definition of genocide as outlined in the UN Genocide Convention, violating principles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
It claims that both Manitoba and Canada engaged in the “intentional destruction” of the culture belonging to Red River Métis children and communities, resulting in “profound, permanent and ongoing cultural injuries” to those communities.
“The Sixties Scoop intentionally subjected the Red River Métis to living conditions designed to cause their physical destruction,” the lawsuit alleges.