Sustaining Cultural Genocide—A Look at Indigenous Children in Non-Indigenous Placement and the Place of Judicial Decision Making—A Canadian Example

Peter Choate, Roy Bear Chief, Desi Lindstrom and Brandy CrazyBull
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Peter Choate: Department of Child Studies and Social Work, Mount Royal University, 4825 Mount Royal Gate SW, Calgary, AB T3E 6K6, Canada
Roy Bear Chief: Department of Child Studies and Social Work, Mount Royal University, 4825 Mount Royal Gate SW, Calgary, AB T3E 6K6, Canada
Desi Lindstrom: Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada
Brandy CrazyBull: Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada

Laws, 2021, vol. 10, issue 3, 1-18

Abstract: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has called upon Canada to engage in a process of reconciliation with the Indigenous peoples of Canada. Child Welfare is a specific focus of their Calls to Action. In this article, we look at the methods in which discontinuing colonization means challenging legal precedents as well as the types of evidence presented. A prime example is the ongoing deference to the Supreme Court of Canada decision in Racine v Woods which imposes Euro-centric understandings of attachment theory, which is further entrenched through the neurobiological view of raising children. There are competing forces observed in the Ontario decision on the Sixties Scoop, Brown v Canada, which has detailed the harm inflicted when colonial focused assimilation is at the heart of child welfare practice. The carillon of change is also heard in a series of decisions from the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal in response to complaints from the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada and the Assembly of First Nations regarding systemic bias in child welfare services for First Nations children living on reserves. Canadian federal legislation Bill C-92, “An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families”, brings in other possible avenues of change. We offer thoughts on manners decolonization might be approached while emphasizing that there is no pan-Indigenous solution. This article has implications for other former colonial countries and their child protection systems.

Keywords: child protection; Indigenous; First Nations; Indigenous Canada; colonialism; cultural genocide (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D78 E61 E62 F13 F42 F68 K0 K1 K2 K3 K4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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