OTTAWA- The federal government and the class-action lawyers who worked on a historic settlement over First Nations child welfare have reached a $55-million deal over legal fees. The Federal Court approved a landmark $23-billion settlement last month to compensate more than 300,000 First Nations children and their families for chronic underfunding of on-reserve child-welfare services. The class-action lawsuit settlement came after a years-long battle with the federal government, which included a 2016 Canadian Human Rights Tribunal decision that the underfunding was discriminatory, and a 2019 ruling awarding $40,000 in compensation for each affected person. The proposed agreement reached today, not yet approved by the Federal Court, would see five firms receive $50 million in legal fees, plus $5 million for ongoing work to implement the settlement, with none of that…
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