Sixties Scoop

Sixties Scoop survivors have followed the lead of residential school survivors and begun to take legal action against the Canadian government and other involved agencies.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/ontario-court-sixties-scoop-interim-payments-1.5596762

Both provincial and federal courts have approved the interim payment plan with interim payments of $21,000 going to eligible class members. There were concerns about the delays due to COVID-19 and now that the court has made this order payments should be going forward "in the next few weeks or months".

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/sixties-scoop-settlement-1.4536735:

While getting the payments is important the lead plaintiff says "there is no payment that can undo a wrong. To acknowledge that wrong and for a country to say yes, this government has done something wrong, is the point of all of this. The sum of money is not and never would be compensation to fulfill an injustice."

I think quite often when we are looking into the issues surrounding land claims, residential schools and 60s scoop compensation is the general population’s belief that Indigenous communities have been ‘given loads of money, so where is it’? That is a quote from a family member that I had a phone conversation with this morning. This person is intelligent, thoughtful and frank; and she has this attitude! I think that this attitude sometimes arises from ignorance, sometimes from racism, but also it arises from media interpretation and bias. When we hear that a particular Nation ‘got’ x millions, we cannot see how they can continue to have problems. When we carried on in our conversation this morning, she was astonished at some of the information I shared. She had no idea.

Another issue that arises is that there is a lot of talk about what to do, but not in consultation with the people who are petitioning for compensation. As Coleen Rajotte states in the article https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/sixties-scoop-settlement-1.4536735:

"Adoptees were not consulted, and the government just got together with a bunch of white lawyers, and these lawyers were able to negotiate $75 million [in legal fees] for themselves," she said.

"You know, $20,000 might sound like a lot of money but … we've lost our culture, our connection to our family, our language, our identity," she said.

"Lawyers are going to walk away with tons of money and we're barely getting anything."

As discussed in several instances throughout this course, the initiatives have to be survivor led, with their communities. Again, ‘not about us without us’.

https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/sixties_scoop/



Below you will find a bunch of articles related to the Sixties Scoop. They were found and responded to by teachers learning about FNMI Peoples and everything connected to them.

https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/sixties-scoop-survivor-settlement

This article, published on May 6th, 2020 by APTN, explains that several Sixties Scoop survivors could be left out of a class action settlement for being unable to produce missing documentation before the end of December. Vanessa Desmeules says her claim was rejected due to Collectiva, the third-party claims administrator, wanting more proof of her being in foster care. Unfortunately for Vanessa, social services has no record of her being in foster care. According to Vanessa, "they have records of (her) for four years and after that there's nothing for, like, ten years." This has been made even more difficult due to the fact she was not issued a birth certificate from her birth family, and her foster family legally changed her name when they adopted her. The financial and logistical implications for obtaining supporting documents can easily qualify hundreds of people from joining the claim.

The saddest part for me about Vanessa's story is her explaining that it isn't about the money. In Vanessa's words, "It’s about getting people to believe my story. I’ve never been able to prove to people where I come from or who I am.” It is also interesting to note that the claim does not apply to non-status Indians or Metis.

It is my hope the Trudeau government will extend the deadline so that no adoptee is left out.

Sixties Scoop settlement firm sent man's Indian status information to the wrong person

This story is about Diane Ormesher, a woman who receives a long awaited settlement claim in the mail, only to find that the firm administering the Sixties Scoop settlement agreement mailed the status information of another man to her by mistake.

It’s not a huge news story, however it reflects Ormesher’s disappointment in the entire system. She filled a settlement claim and was rejected, as it appears that her parents took a one-time payment that cancelled their status. This is called a “scrip.”

I am still not confident that I understand what a scrip is. What I do know is that it looks like a wild goose chase of sending people far away from their homes to land title offices to receive their scrip or parcel of land, and getting tied up in more litigation designed to confuse anyone applying. They often had to give up their original land, and in Ormesher’s case, in accepting a scrip her birth parents forfeited their status.

Ormesher got a lawyer to challenge the rejection. It broke my heart to read her quote: "I feel like my heritage has been denied and my ancestry hasn't been formally acknowledged." If she felt like she didn’t belong in either her adoptive or birth family’s world now, I can’t imagine what it would feel like to have your past denied. Given that it’s likely 60’s scoop survivors have trauma related mental health issues, I can’t imagine that navigating a rejection from a class action lawsuit would be in any way helpful.

As I continue to try to grasp why children would be allowed to be removed from their homes in such staggering numbers, and I hear the stories about mothers desperately pleading to get their children back, I am reminded of a story I read a while ago about an alleged “orphaned” child from Uganda being adopted to a couple in the Untied States. Later they found out that the mother was tricked by the adoption agency, and they realised that the mother, and the rest of the girl’s family, was still very much alive.

Although I already knew about the 60’s Scoop, I never considered how difficult the path forward is, despite an apology and some compensation available to some. I also had a chance to look at what an adoption ad in a newspaper might have looked like. If you click on the first link below and scroll to the bottom, you can view the ads. They look so positive and happy. You can see how a family, perhaps having difficulty making their own family, could be lured into something that they don’t fully understand.

Resources:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/sixties-scoop-mail-mixup-status-1.5441923

https://www.ictinc.ca/blog/the-scrip-how-did-the-scrip-policy-affect-metis-history

https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/13/opinions/adoption-uganda-opinion-davis/index.html


There is A LOT of information out there and it seems to be updated regularly currently. Essentially the federal government came to a settlement in 2018 that provide $50 million to create the Sixties Scoop Foundation and committed to providing between $500-750 million to ONLY “status indians” or Inuit People who were taken from their families between 1951-1991. It is clear non-status Indigenous People and Metis have been left out. The settlement states that an average of $25 000 will be paid with a maximum of $50 000 per person. The government initially stated they expected survivors to receive money in the spring of 2020 after all claims are processed.

However, those who are eligible have a bit of an uphill battle. First off they need to have been navigating all the changing information and the forms to apply. The deadline was September 2019. Some survivors were led to believe lawyers and the third party agency Collectiva would be going through claims and collecting “proof” of experience in the child care system/permanent removal from homes (Crown wards). This has not been the case. “Collectiva and the four firms have shifted the burden of proof of status eligibility and time in care to survivors”. This means survivors have to quickly relive the trauma by trying to find records of being a crowd ward (which don’t exist for some even though they clearly were in that position) and proof of how long they were taken from their community. “The government has acknowledged these settlements force survivors to relive trauma as part of receiving compensation.” This seems terrible to me. Fortunately advocates fought for extensions and that allowed many people to get the “proof” in on time. However, some applications have been denied and there have been other issues with the claims process. For example, an Indigenous woman in Ontario received a BC man's information package about his claim this year. Meaning, private information about his painful past went to a complete stranger. Mishandling of information like this does not give survivors confidence in this system.

In fact, there are many issues with survivors having to go through this process. Some within the Indigenous community worry of the spike of mental health problems, like threatening to die by suicide, that have come up because of the pain of this process. There has been support offered to survivors to attempt to make the process easier but some feel it is not enough. For example, there were 55 funded information sessions between December 2018-August 2019 to ensure people understood the claims process. There is also a help line for survivors (Hope for Wellness Help Line). As well the Sixties Scoop Foundation has been funded as is ready to help people, completely independent of government. They are also open to helping ALL survivors, even if the government is not yet acknowledging them.

The process is still actively happening as more claims are processed by the day. Almost 35 000 claims were received and over 12 000 have qualified thus far. It will be interesting to see how this continues to develop in terms of managing information and commitment to survivors.

https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1517425414802/1559830290668

https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/sixties-scoop-mail-mixup-status-1.5441923

https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/60s-scoop/

https://60sscoopfoundation.com/


Saskatchewan 'destroyed' files needed for Sixties Scoop lawsuits

It is indeed hard to find recent developments in this story. This one from February adds insult to injury. https://thestarphoenix.com/news/saskatchewan/ministry-of-social-services-told-60s-scoop-survivor-their-historic-documents-were-destroyed-privacy-commissioner/

As mentioned in other posts, Sixties Scoop survivors have to provide documentation to participate in the settlement. This story in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix explains how one survivor went to get court orders and placement documents created between 1954 and 1970 and was told they had been destroyed. "The ministry told the applicant...that record management practices changed in the 1980s and records prior to this were not kept in accordance with 'extended retention schedules.'"

The survivor's sibling was able to obtain records, so the plaintiff's lawyer asked the government to look again, but none have been found.

The Saskatchewan government says that records from a certain period have been destroyed to save space. Also, children who were placed in foster care rather than adopted would not have had records kept because they were not "permanent wards." The government has found records for 84% of the 2000 people making requests. (Which means that 14% of the survivors in Saskatchewan did not have the appropriate documents to make their claims!)

“Many 60s Scoop people walk alone. Those files would have provided at least some information about their hidden past,” said survivor Betty Ann Adam.

“And the fact the government destroyed those records, for the convenience of space … that they weren’t considered important, it’s really disrespectful, it’s insulting. It minimizes the trauma the government itself inflicted upon us. It minimizes the importance of what was done to us. It’s a shameful example of the government’s disregard for the importance of Indigenous families.”


The Legacy of "Good Intentions" - Indigenous Youth in Canada's Foster Care System

Raven Sinclair "hit it right on the nail" when she clarified that the "good intentions" of Residential Schools led to the Sixties Scoop. This destructive legacy and is now in the third phase through today's foster care system. From 2013 to 2017, 102 Indigenous children in Ontario died while connected to the child welfare system - this number is considered "low" in comparison to previous years according to APTN studies.

I first became aware the inheritors of this issue when I saw a news report in 2014 about the murder of Tina Michelle Fountaine (aged 15 years) in a Winnipeg hotel. Over the past few years, many Indigenous teens in Manitoba system (also in other provinces like Alberta and B.C) were put into hotels because of lack of foster care placements. Many Indigenous teens committed suicide or were the victims of sexual exploitation, violence or homicide. Manitoba cancelled this practice in 2015. Teens aging out of the system also have higher rates of substance abuse and suicide.

Many of these teens were put into the system by their own families (some dealing with substance abuse and domestic violence) hoping that they would be given the opportunity for a better life. The story of Alex Gervais is particularly compelling - he was moved 17 times, had 23 caregivers/social workers and showed repeated signs of suicidal thoughts before he died. I've included a detailed article below about how the system repeatedly failed Alex - "Life, interrupted: How B.C youth are fighting for stability in a broken child welfare system."

Cindy Blackstock brought up an important first step to working on immediate problems in the foster care system - provide social workers with more culturally relevant training and unpack potentially, racially motivated biases when dealing with Indigenous youth and their communities.

Here are 3 articles that address this difficult topic:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/teen-suicide-foster-home-mother-1.4501229

https://www.cbc.ca/missingandmurdered/mmiw/profiles/tina-michelle-fontaine

https://thediscourse.ca/child-welfare/life-interrupted-how-bc-youth-are-fighting-for-stability-in-a-broken-child-welfare-system


“'They Wanted More Proof': Survivor Says Sixties Scoop Settlement Needs More Time.”

Forester, Brett. “'They Wanted More Proof': Survivor Says Sixties Scoop Settlement Needs More Time.” APTN News, 6 May 2020, www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/sixties-scoop-survivor-settlement/.

This article shows how this decision could leave some survivors out of the compensation package. For some, the entire process of providing proof of eligibility to the government has been marred by incomplete or inaccurate records and proof. Missing birth records, or foster records, for example, have left Vanessa Desmeules in a difficult spot. She has received her ‘notice of intent to reject her claim’ as a result of having missing material and a 45 day window to produce it. This is a challenge if the proof they are seeking just doesn’t exist due to system problems with the 1960s adoption process.

As Vanessa Desmeules’ challenge isn’t an isolated one, Leah Gazan, the MP from Winnipeg Centre asked Trudeau, in the House of Commons, to consider an extension so that all survivors could get their paid out. Trudeau did not answer the question. Gazan says, “If this government is truly serious about reconciliation then it needs to do whatever it has to to make sure that they reconcile with those that have been wronged by racist, colonial, paternalistic legislation.”

I find it quite interesting how fluid this litigation is at this moment in time. Time will tell if all the survivors get their settlements. My guess will be that some, as with the Residential School Survivors, will not get their settlements and the system will once again add insult to injury. I personally think they should have a trust account set up for challenging claims so that those that can’t meet these arbitrary deadlines by no fault of their own, can still be compensated.


First off I have to say that researching this topic was quite difficult in the sense of grasping the breadth of damage that has been done to so many people, and the lack of effort being put in to resolve any of the causations behind government actions.

A common feeling of people from the research I have done is that not enough is being done, it’s not being done efficiently enough, and the settlements are not up to par with the damage done to the individuals involved in the sixties scoop. I found 2 interesting videos, they’re about 20 minutes each that deal what the Alberta government (taking some direction after the apology given in Manitoba), and then the sixties scoop in Canada in general, as well as those affected through States adoptions that are now facing hardships with the new administration and deportation laws.

I also found a neat website that tracks the Canadian Class Action Settlements regarding the sixties scoop: https://www.sixtiesscoopsettlement.info/Record.htm?record=19206351124910245339&heading=Updates+%3Cspan+style=%22color:+%23FF0000;%22%3ENEW%3C%2Fspan%3E

I found that quite a few applications have been deemed ineligible and I would like to understand what the eligibility factor is in order for an application to be processed. From the number of cases filed (it is tracked monthly), I agree with the lack of efficiency as not a lot of cases have been processed in the time since their filing. Covid is being used I think as an excuse, and personally I do not have that much faith in the justice behind this system after having learned of Saskatchewan's destruction of documentation for the sake of space saving. This hugely increases the inequality of the government approach to denying or assigning an "ineligible" sanction on a case as this is purely due to their own negligence.

The First Video:

Sixties Scoop: More than Sorry - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW_jPg-2aTU

At the end there is a link for settlement procedures and starting the application process.

There is also mention in this video about the government workers responsible for the removal of children being non-Indigenous and not having that cultural understanding when approaching situations. I find that this is a major issue and from an authority figure such as the government, how can you justify actions that your workers are doing that is beyond the scope of their appreciation and understanding?

The Second Video:

APTN Investigates: The Children Taken Away - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axRTkncZRak

This video is interesting as well and gives Raven Sinclair's story of being taken away from her family as a child. It also discusses the purchasing on Indigenous children through adoption fees ranging from $4,000 to $30,000. I am curious who this money went to and what it was used for. The fact that Canada was "selling" children is appalling an dis frankly a form of slavery. People should not be bought and sold as commodities. This is another crime that I feel needs to be looked in to. The video also goes on to track a few other cases that were not positive experiences. What I did find interesting is that some of the scooped children wound up in the United States. I can't imagine the difficulty of coping with such a move.