First Nations group presses Ottawa to come back to the table for child welfare talks

The First Nations Child and Family Caring Society is calling on the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal to force the federal government back to the negotiation table on national reforms to the child welfare system after chiefs voted down proposed changes on two occasions last year.The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations is asking for an update from the Caring Society months after chiefs put it and a newly formed committee in charge of seeking new negotiations with Canada, and after Canada informed the assembly it was only prepared to renegotiate with First Nations in Ontario.“The AFN remains quite concerned with recent developments, particularly if any of the financial commitments under the agreement-in-principle or the draft final agreement will continue to be secured for First Nations children and families moving forward,” National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said in a letter to First Nations Child and Family Caring Society director Cindy Blackstock on Tuesday.