Aboriginal group to file human rights complaint against Ottawa

From EndCanadianPoverty.ca

• Date: February 5th, 2007
• Source: CBC News
• Link to article: Aboriginal group to file human rights complaint against Ottawa

"The Assembly of First Nations is set to file a human rights complaint against the federal government, saying Ottawa must end its "systemic discrimination" of underfunding aboriginal child-welfare services.

Assembly Chief Phil Fontaine is expected to make the announcement Monday when he speaks to the International Congress on Ethics in Gatineau, Que.

"Our children need action now. So I am announcing today [Monday] that we are putting governments on notice that a lack of action should be viewed as putting children at risk," says Fontaine in the text of his speech, obtained by the Globe and Mail.

One in 10 aboriginal children is in foster care, compared to one in 200 non-aboriginal children.

But the assembly says child-welfare agencies for first nations get 22 per cent less money than those that deal with non-aboriginal children."