Article content continued

In a statement issued by Seamus O’Regan, the Indigenous Services minister, the government acknowledges discrimination and the principle of compensation but said it wants time to “address important questions and considerations such as who is to be compensated and the role of the Tribunal.”

Elizabeth May, the Green Party leader, said the decision to appeal went far beyond the normal reach of a writ period “caretaker government.” “Trudeau must explain and reverse this outrage,” she said.

But O’Regan’s statement suggested it was the timing, rather than the substance of the CHRT judgment, that the government objects to.

“In order to give us both clarity on the ruling and time to have these conversations with our partners, which are not possible during an election, we are seeking a judicial review and stay,” he said in the statement.

Trudeau must explain and reverse this outrage Elizabeth May

If he’d said Indigenous groups were “asking for more than we’re able to give right now” – as Trudeau did when asked about veterans fighting their own government in court – O’Regan would have been closer to the truth.

Best to wait until safely ensconced back in power before adding further billions to the deficit.

The number one call to action by the post-residential schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission was on child welfare and the need to provide adequate resources to Indigenous communities to keep families together.

The Trudeau government took steps last spring to overhaul the system and move away from a model that tied funding to the number of kids in care – a mechanism that provided an incentive to agencies to apprehend more children. An extra $1.4 billion was added over six years to provide services at the needed levels.

But Jackson’s research showed 48 of the 102 deaths happened in two of the years the Trudeau government was resisting multiple orders by the CHRT that found Canada guilty of underfunding children’s welfare.

The challenge to the human rights tribunal’s decision to compensate children victimized by a toxic system is just the latest example of the Trudeau government saying one thing and doing the very opposite because it suited its self-interest.

• Email: jivison@postmedia.com | Twitter: IvisonJ