Sitting in the second row of a Toronto courthouse, Marcia Brown Martel listened with disappointment as the government of Canada sought to absolve itself of responsibility for the suffering of Indigenous children during a period known as the Sixties Scoop.
Brown Martel was one of those children. Now she’s the lead plaintiff in a $1.3 billion class action that accuses Canada of failing to protect the cultural identity of some 16,000 children in Ontario who were taken from reserves by government workers and placed in white homes across Canada, the U.S., and Europe, under a belief at the time that it was in the child’s best interest.
But the Canadian government says it isn’t liable for any loss of identity or tradition, and on Thursday Crown lawyers asked a judge to dismiss the lawsuit.
“I heard from leadership that spoke of taking this out of court,” said Brown Martel, a member of the Temagami First Nation near Kirkland Lake, Ont., who was 9 years old when she was taken from her home in 1972. “But actions speak louder than words.”
“Our healing is already taking place,” she continued. “The government of Canada can choose if they want to encourage that or say they don’t want to be a part of it. They could speed this along and help.”
Canada says it isn’t liable for the removal of Indigenous children from homes in the Sixties Scoop
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