Indigenous Child Welfare Directors Welcome Bill C-15
If passed, the bill will require laws in Canada to respect UNDRIP
Coast Salish Territory – BC’s Delegated Aboriginal Agency Directors Forum welcomes Bill C-15, An Act respecting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The bill was introduced by the federal government on December 3rd and would require laws in Canada to respect the rights articulated in UNDRIP.
UNDRIP recognizes “the right of Indigenous families and communities to retain shared responsibility for the well-being of their children” and prohibits “forcibly removing children of the group to another group.”
Over the past half century, Indigenous leaders and communities have been working toward the resumption of jurisdiction over their children and families. Together with An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families, Bill C-15 will empower Indigenous communities to assume responsibility for their own children and families under their own laws and according to their own practices.
“Imagine the day when Indigenous people resume control for the well-being of our children. Imagine the day when the governance of Indigenous child and family services rests solely with Indigenous communities. Imagine the day that our own laws entrench our children’s right to their families, clans, cultures and lands. Bill C-15 represents a step toward demolishing the legal foundations of colonial child welfare systems that have torn thousands of Indigenous children away from their communities and their cultures,” says Mary Teegee, Chair of the Delegated Aboriginal Agencies Directors Forum
Media contact:
Mary Teegee (Maaxw Gibuu), IMBA
Chair, Directors Forum
Delegated Aboriginal Agencies
Ph: 250-612-8710
About the Directors Forum
The Directors Forum, a coalition of executives responsible for managing the 24 delegated Aboriginal Agencies in BC, agencies representing 60% of First Nations in the province. As a collective and expert voice on child welfare matters, the Directors Forum bring decades of frontline experience working with Indigenous children and families.