Court urged to toss ’60s Scoop lawsuits

WINNIPEG — Lawyers for the provincial and federal governments argue two lawsuits filed by the Manitoba Métis Federation over the apprehension of Métis children during the ’60s Scoop should be rejected.

In its first claim, filed in the Court of King’s Bench in November, the federation says the federal and provincial governments owe it damages for the harm caused by the ’60s Scoop to the Red River Métis as a whole.

In separate statements of defence filed in April, the two governments argue that lawsuit should be dismissed.

The Manitoba government, in its response, said it acknowledges children’s aid societies apprehended Indigenous children, including Métis, at a disproportionate rate and that many were placed for adoption in non-Indigenous homes across Canada and in the United States, which contributed to a loss in culture.

The province says its actions or inaction during the time in question don’t make it responsible under the law for any harms suffered by the Métis.

“As a matter of law, the actions or omissions of Manitoba … do not give rise to legal liability,” reads the province’s court filing.

“However, Manitoba remains committed to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples and communities, including with Red River Métis, and seeks to achieve that in collaboration with Indigenous communities.”

It argues Manitoba children’s aid societies were, generally, separate legal entities that weren’t directly overseen by the provincial government, and the government cannot be held liable for their conduct.

The province denies owing the federation any duties that it could be held legally responsible for and argues the claim is barred under the Limitations Act, which dictates time periods for when lawsuits can be filed, among other laws that it says prevent the claim from moving forward.

The Manitoba government filed a cross-claim against the federal government, seeking to have the senior level of government be held responsible for any damages for which the province is ruled liable.

The federal government argues in its April statement of defence that it can’t be held liable for what happened to the Métis.

The federal government argues it was Manitoba that had jurisdiction and control over child welfare at the relevant times, and it did not provide any direct funding for off-reserve child-welfare services, including for the Métis.

Canada provides general funding to the provinces to deliver social programs for kids who live off-reserve, which would include the Métis, but it is wholly Manitoba’s discretion to decide how that money is used, the federal government says.

There were no funding agreements between the federal and provincial governments during the time in question for Red River Métis child-welfare services, Ottawa says, and therefore, it had no duties with respect to how the services were provided.

“The circumstances set out in the statement of claim do not give rise to any duties in law on the part of Canada to the plaintiffs,” the federal government argues, saying the claim should be dismissed.

The federal government filed a cross claim against the Manitoba government in which it seeks to have the lower government held responsible for any damages.

The second claim, a proposed class-action lawsuit filed in December by the federation and Albert Beck, seeks damages over the harm personally suffered by Métis children who were taken into care and placed with non-Indigenous families in Canada and the U.S. from 1939 to 1991.

It names the provincial government as defendant.

Beck, the proposed representative plaintiff, was born in Ste. Rose du Lac in 1968 to a Métis mom, before he was taken into care, then adopted by a non-Indigenous family. He did not learn about his Indigenous background until he was nearly 30.

The province, in a second statement of defence filed in April, relied on a similar legal argument as it did in its earlier court filing to argue the proposed class action should also be dismissed.

The province also argues Beck does not have the legal standing to advance such a claim on behalf of the Métis, and that while the federation does have standing, it would be an abuse of process to allow both claims to continue.

In the 1970s, Indigenous and Métis activists raised concern about the practice of putting First Nations and Indigenous kids who had been apprehended by child-welfare authorities up for adoption, leading most provinces to stop adopting out the children, but Manitoba was the last province to abandon it, in 1982.

A provincial inquiry in 1985 deemed the practice, which came to be known as the ’60s Scoop, as cultural genocide. Manitoba apologized for the practice in 2015.

The federal government settled an earlier class action over the Scoop in 2017, acknowledging its role in the adoptions and the harms it caused to First Nations and Inuit who were taken into care, but the Red River Métis weren’t included in that $750-million compensation agreement.

As part of that settlement, the federal government set up a ’60s Scoop healing foundation that the Métis can access, the government argued in its recent court filing.

» Winnipeg Free Press