A major victory was won on April 18 ...

A major victory was won on April 18 when a federal court ruled that the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal failed to give a thorough airing to the issue of discrimination in federal funding to child welfare services on reserve. The court has ordered a new hearing on the issue. The tribunal had dismissed a case, filed by Cindy Blackstock of the First Nations and Family Caring Society and the Assembly of First Nations, on what many called a technicality. Without hearing any testimony, the tribunal ruled that to establish discrimination a comparison must be made of the services being provided to two different groups. Blackstock had argued that the federal government was underfunding services to on-reserve children as compared to the funding received by children living off-reserve and provided by provincial governments.