Annual General Assembly
July 20 - 23, 1999
Vancouver, British Columbia

Moved by:
Chief John Shirt
Saddle Lake First Nation
Alberta

Seconded by:
Gerald Esquash (Proxy)
Swan Lake First Nation

Carried by consensus

Subject:
Adoption and Custody of Aboriginal and First Nations Children

WHEREAS during the 1960s and continuing into the 1970s and 1980s over 3000 Aboriginal and First Nation children were removed from First Nation communities and sent out of Manitoba for adoption, often in the United States; and

WHEREAS this forced deportation was a massive failure on a personal and a family level, and was effectively a form of genocide; and

WHEREAS an extremely high percentage of children who were deported experienced a cultural identity crisis as they grew up; and

WHEREAS many of these children were subjected to abuse, neglect, discrimination, and for some, death or prison terms related to treatment received in adoptive homes; and

WHEREAS in 1983 the Manitoba NDP government commissioned Judge Edwin Kimmelman to investigate this practice, and in his final report “No Quiet Place” he labeled this practice “cultural genocide” and recommended an end to the adoptions of aboriginal and First Nation children out of province; and

WHEREAS the long-term social, cultural and physical effects continue to be felt in every First Nation community; and

WHEREAS on February 17^th , 1999 the Supreme Court of Canada, on appeal from the British Columbia Court of Appeal ruled that a four-year old Swan Lake First Nation child who had lived with his biological grandfather, a member of the Sagkeeng First Nation for over three years, would be better off in a home in the United States because of the adoptive grandparents’ better financial situation;  and

WHEREAS this decision has set a dangerous precedent for all First Nation adoptees and their children;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Assembly of First Nations confirm its opposition to adoptions of First Nation children to non-First Nation families;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the Assembly of First Nations support every effort to reject economic standards as the main factor in determining adoption placements;

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED THAT the Assembly of First Nations demand that the Federal Government of Canada legislate a Federal First Nations Child Welfare Law and work in cooperation with the Assembly of First Nations for this legislation.