60s Scoop survivor talks about receiving first settlement cheque from Canadian government
The Sixties scoop was a series of policies administered from 1951 to 1991 where thousands of Indigenous children were forcibly taken from their homes, placed in foster care, and adopted by predominantly white families around the world.
For the large majority of those children, that meant losing their heritage, their culture, and their language. And sadly, many were abused.
In February, 2017, an Ontario judge presiding over a class action lawsuit filed by survivors of what came to be known as the “Sixties Scoop” ruled that the federal government failed in its “duty of care” for thousands of indigenous children who were taken from their homes.
Later that year, the Federal government agreed to a financial settlement of $750 million to be split amongst the estimated 20,000 survivors. With interim payments being issued just this month, Jennifer Allen, a Sixties scoop survivor talks to Maggie John about the work that still needs to be done.
