The Inuvialuit Regional Corporation has publicly chastised the territorial government and Premier Caroline Cochrane, accusing the GNWT of reversing its stance on a homegrown child care law that the IRC passed just over a year ago.
By joining a matter before the Supreme Court, the GNWT is continuing a “centuries long policy of removing Indigenous children from their families, homes and communities — denying them their culture, and basic human right,” the IRC stated in a full-page ad in the Dec. 7 edition of Yellowknifer.
The IRC’s law seeks to provide groundwork to enhance supports for Inuvialuit families to reduce the needs for intervention. It also requires all federal, territorial and provincial governments to meet standards when providing child and family services to Inuvialuit children and their families. It effectively involves the IRC in any and all child welfare cases involving Inuvialuit children.
Canada’s Supreme Court is hearing a challenge by the Quebec government this week on the federal government’s ‘An Act Respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis Children, Youth and Families,’ and the GNWT is joining Quebec as an intervener, alongside British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba. The results could have bearing the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation’s first child welfare law.
A hearing on the conflict between the GNWT and the IRC has not yet been scheduled on the Supreme Court of Canada’s website.
However, the Quebec challenge of the federal legislation may disrupt the 2020 federal act, which provides the legal basis for Indigenous governments to write and enforce their own child welfare laws.