Federal lawyers accused of withholding documents related case before Human Rights Tribunal

In mid-May, federal lawyers were accused of withholding documents related to a discrimination case at the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. Lawyer Paul Champ, representing First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, leveled the charge. “We always believed there would be ongoing disclosure because the case is ongoing and new audits come up then fine, but it appears from the letter from (Justice Canada) that basically there’s a large number of documents dating back to 2010 that have not yet been disclosed,” APTN News reports. The society is seeking a decision that the federal government discriminates against on-reserve children in care through underfunding, compared to provincial funding for off-reserve children in care. Cindy Blackstock, the executive director of the Caring Society, wondered about the lack of information Justice Canada had disclosed in the case. She filed an access to information request and received nearly 4,000 documents and 30,000 pages of such things as audits and evaluations of an enhanced funding program for child welfare. Champ wondered why the information was not disclosed to parties at the hearing. In a letter dated May 7, 2013, Justice Canada said another 50,000 documents would be ready to release between September and December 2013, but this would be after the hearings wrap up. Representatives from the Assembly of First Nations want the documents released within the next 30 days.