Sixties Scoop: 20,000 aboriginal children taken from their homes
The Sixties Scoop is a term used for a practice that existed between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s that saw some 16,000-18,000 aboriginal children taken from their homes and fostered or adopted into non-indigenous families in Ontario. The National Council of Welfare has described the Sixties Scoop as:
an era in Canadian history between 1960 and the mid-1980s when the highest number of adoptions of Aboriginal children took place. During this time, Aboriginal children were sometimes literally scooped from their homes without knowledge or consent from families or communities. Sometimes buses were hired to remove large numbers of Aboriginal children at a time. Over 11,000 status Indian children, plus many other Aboriginal children, were placed for adoption by non-Aboriginal families, the result of which was a generation of Aboriginal children raised without cultural knowledge and with confused identities. (as cited in "Aboriginal Child Welfare in Ontario," Commission to Promote Sustainable Child Welfare, July 2011)
The Chiefs of Ontario passed a resolution in 2008 stating that:
adopting out of First Nations children is a continuation of assimilation policies handed down by the provincial and federal governments of Canada. These government policies have devastated First Nations families, children and culture. First Nations continue to be tragically affected by the “adopting out” of their children, as evidenced by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada statistics from 1996 whereby 16,810 Treaty status children were adopted out to predominantly non-native families across Canada, the United States, and Europe. The long term effects of the Sixties Scoop continue to be felt in every First Nation community across Canada as parents and children continue to deal with the devastating effects of lost relatives. The federal and provincial governments are responsible for the intentional and systematic destruction of First Nation families and communities through assimilation policies and actions... ("Support for Sixties Scoop Litigation," Resolution 08/92, November 18-20, 2008.)
Class Action Lawsuit
The Sixties Scoop is the subject of a class action lawsuit filed in 2009 by Marcia Brown and Robert Commanda, who were themselves adopted into non-indigenous families (Brown was taken away at the age of 4 while Commanda moved at the age of 2). Commanda has stated that his experience has meant that he feels connected to neither his aboriginal roots nor his 'adoptive' culture: "I don' t belong there, and really don't belong out here either. I hold the federal government responsible for what happened to us after we were apprehended."
The lawsuit has suffered various set backs as the federal government has appealed various decisions (despite the federal government's 2008 apology over residential schools, which also involved the separation of aboriginal children from their families) and the plaintiffs have had significant costs imposed on them by the court system (in January 2012, Brown and Commanda were ordered to pay $25,000 in costs by a judge after losing an appeal by the government).
In July 2013, however, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice certified the class action, enabling it to move forward.
The lawsuit has suffered various set backs as the federal government has appealed various decisions (despite the federal government's 2008 apology over residential schools, which also involved the separation of aboriginal children from their families) and the plaintiffs have had significant costs imposed on them by the court system (in January 2012, Brown and Commanda were ordered to pay $25,000 in costs by a judge after losing an appeal by the government).
In July 2013, however, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice certified the class action, enabling it to move forward.