National Children’s Chiefs Commission Condemns Canada’s Judicial Review of Tribunal Order: “Another Delay Tactic that Harms Our Children”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Old Crow, Yukon, September 20, 2025) — The National Children’s Chiefs Commission (“the Commission”) strongly condemns Canada’s decision to apply for Judicial Review of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal’s (CHRT) ruling in 2025 CHRT 80, calling it yet another attempt to delay justice for First Nations children.
In 2016, after a decade-long legal effort led by the Caring Society and the Assembly of First Nations, the CHRT ruled that Canada knowingly and willfully discriminated against First Nations children, causing egregious harm. The CHRT ordered Canada to cease its discriminatory conduct and ensure it never happened again. Since then, the Tribunal has issued more than 20 additional orders against Canada, dragging them into compliance with the original ruling.
“Instead of finally ending its discrimination, Canada has once again chosen to fight First Nations children in court,” said Chief Pauline Frost, Chair of the National Children’s Chiefs Commission. “Every year Canada delays, another generation of our children is harmed. Children should not have to wait a single day longer for justice.”
The Tribunal’s 2025 CHRT 80 decision was a major step forward. It set out a process and timeline for developing long-term remedies to once and for all end Canada’s discriminatory First Nations child and family services. In setting the path forward, the Tribunal recognized that the Caring Society and the Commission were ready to lead the work, and that decades of studies and evidence already exist. There is simply no reason to not move forward expediently in the best interests of our children.
Instead of working on solutions, Canada is now challenging the ruling.
“A child born the day this complaint was filed would be 18 today,” said Chief Vicky Chief, the Commissioner representing Quebec & Labrador. “That’s an entire childhood lost while Canada fought us in the courts. Filing a Judicial Review is not leadership. It is not partnership. It is the same old colonial denial and delay.”
After filing the Judicial Review, Minister of Indigenous Services Mandy Gull-Masty claimed Canada is working “in close partnership” with First Nations rights holders to advance reform. The record tells a different story.
Since its creation by First Nations Chiefs in October 2024, the Commission has written to Canada more than ten times, submitting a detailed workplan, budget, and proposal to begin negotiations. Until the Tribunal itself pressed Canada to engage, the Minister and her predecessor ignored every request. Only then did the Minister permit a 20-minute phone call with the Commission’s Chair, later reporting to the Tribunal that Canada had discharged its obligation to “engage” with the Commission.
“This is not partnership—it is misrepresentation,” said Chief Frost. “Canada has deliberately excluded and undermined a body established by First Nations rights holders to protect our children. To claim they are working in partnership is deeply offensive and misleading.”
The National Children’s Chiefs Commission is calling on Canada to immediately withdraw its Judicial Review, respect the Tribunal’s direction, and sit down with the Commission to implement the reforms children have been waiting for far too long.
“As the Tribunal regularly reminds us—this case is about children,” Chief Frost concluded. “It’s time for Canada to stop litigating against them, and finally do the work to end its discrimination.”
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Media Contact:
Chief Pauline Frost, Chair, National Children’s Chiefs Commission, [email protected]