OTTAWA - Ottawa is asking the Federal Court to overturn a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal order directing it to work with First Nations to reform the child welfare system, and for a new panel to be struck to determine next steps in a nearly two-decade-long legal battle.
The order, released in August, came nine years after the tribunal concluded that the federal government had discriminated against First Nations children by underfunding the on-reserve child welfare system, following a joint 2007 human rights complaint filed by the Assembly of First Nations and the Caring Society.