Philpott calls emergency meeting with provinces on Indigenous child welfare – CBC

AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde is scheduled to hold a ‘day of action’ Thursday

Nov 02, 2017

Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott is calling for an emergency meeting early next year on Aboriginal child welfare, likening the current state of affairs to Canada’s residential school legacy that forcibly removed young people from their culture and families.

Philpott, who fired off a letter this week to provincial and territorial counterparts requesting their attendance at the meeting, said the rate at which Canada is apprehending Indigenous kids is among the highest in the world.

“To me, this is arguably the most pressing priority of my new department,” Philpott said in an interview.