
Indigenous Youth in Alberta
The Claims: This case makes two types of claims.
Child Services: First, it alleges that the governments of Canada and Alberta (1) did not adequately fund child services for indigenous children; (2) implemented funding structures and policies that prioritized removing Indigenous children from their homes instead of providing Indigenous parents with services to care for their children at home; (3) failed to consider placing Indigenous children in kinship care; and (4) placed Indigenous children in culturally and physically unsafe settings, in which the children had limited to no access to their families, communities, cultures, or languages.
Essential Services: Second, it alleges that the governments of Canada and Alberta failed to provide, or delayed in providing essential health and social services to Indigenous children.
The Class: This case seeks to represent:
(1) all off-reserve Indigenous (First Nations, Métis, and Inuit) children in Alberta who were removed from their homes while they were under the age of 18, since 1992;
(2) all off-reserve Indigenous children in Alberta who were denied prompt access to an essential service, since 1992; and
(3) the caregiving parents and grandparents of those children.
Our Partners: We are bringing this claim and parallel claims in other provinces with a consortium of firms across the country, including Cochrane Saxberg (Manitoba), Murphy Battista (BC), Miller Titerle (BC), and Kugler Kandestin (Quebec).
The court will decide at a later date if the case will proceed as a class action.
- February 13, 2023: We issued a Statement of Claim.
- Statement of Claim issued February 13, 2023