Canada Responsible for Things Canada Has Always Controlled Court Finds
A federal judge has delivered two rulings so stern they briefly caused Ottawa to check whether “responsibility” had been quietly repealed.
In decisions released Friday, Justice Paul Favel found Canada failed in its duty to provide clean drinking water and adequate housing to several First Nations – a conclusion federal lawyers reportedly greeted with surprise, given how rarely courts insist governments do the obvious.
Favel ruled Canada owed Shamattawa First Nation, and others joining its class action, safe drinking water during years when “do not drink” signs doubled as long-term décor. In a separate decision, he found Ottawa should have ensured adequate housing on reserves dating back to 1999, a year remembered fondly for flip phones, dial-up internet and, apparently, unresolved constitutional obligations.
The judge noted Canada made First Nations dependent by forcibly relocating them to reserves, then tightly controlling funding for housing and water – a system critics describe as “colonialism,” and Ottawa prefers to call “complex.”
The rulings mark a rare moment when Canada’s moral obligations were found to be legally enforceable, rather than merely aspirational.
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