Some First Nation children live in Nunavut where it is very cold. Before residential schools, First Nation children learned from their grandparents, in many different ways. First Nation children were abused and mistreated and had no rights. In 1895, Duncan Campbell Scott, deputy superintendent of the Department of Indian Affairs, issued a warrant for the removal of First Nations children, because they were “not properly cared for at home.” Also, in 1907, Peter Henderson Bryce, an Ontario and federal public servant, documents atrocious conditions and preventable deaths in residential schools and reports back to the Department of Indian Affairs. The Evening Citizen publishes Bryce’s report, on the front page, with the headline “Schools Aid White Plague – Startling Death Tolls Revealed Among Indians – Absolute Inattention To The Bare Necessities of Health.”

In 1996, The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, finally, spoke up and noted the dramatic overrepresentation of First Nations, Metis and Inuit children in child welfare services and like Caldwell calls for better prevention and family support services and little was done. In 2007, The First Nations children and Family caring Society of Canada and the Assembly of First Nations filed a complaint, on First Nations child welfare, to the Canadian Human Rights Commission.  Motion NO. 296 passes unanimously, in the House of Commons, in support of Jordan’s Principle, stating “the government should, immediately, adopt a child first principle…. to resolve jurisdictional disputes, involving the care of First Nations children. “In 2012, the child welfare complaint was again referred to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, for a full hearing on the merits of the case. The complaint was dismissed, in 2011, on a legal technicality but that decision was overturned by The Federal Court of Appeal. The federal government’s internal documents estimated the shortfall for First Nations child welfare is over $108 million. The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal heard from 25 witnesses, including seven government officials, in over 72 days of hearings. Today, there are so many rights and apologies for the aboriginal peoples. Even now, there are foundations to help aboriginal peoples and that supports them too. Now, First Nations have their rights. The governments want to apologize to all the First Nations children, for residential schools and all the harm done. Now, First Nations have the rights they deserve.