Back in court to push for class action lawsuit regarding Sixties Scoop

Chief Marcia Brown-Martel of the Beaverhouse First Nation and Robert Commanda were back in court in July to push for a class action lawsuit that will examine the Sixties Scoop and the loss of cultural identity to Native children that were removed from their homes between 1965 and 1985. About 16,000 Aboriginal children in Ontario were apprehended and placed in non-Native care during this time, it is estimated. Brown-Martel and Commanda brought the class action in early 2009 and a judge conditionally granted certification of the action proceeding, but in December 2011 it was ruled that certification shouldn’t have been granted. The two were attempting another run at it last month in Ontario Superior Court in Toronto. “I am dismayed that the government of Canada has taken the position that there is no justifiable claim because its actions were in the best interests of me and 16,000 other children who were taken from our homes and raised far away from our communities without regard for our cultural identity,” said Brown-Martel in a press release issued by the Nishnawbe Aski Nation. “Canada’s argument that it had no capacity and no obligation to protect our Aboriginal cultural rights is reprehensible [and] is a continuation of the assimilation policies inflicted upon First Nations through the residential school system.”