Blackstock sees ‘imbalance’ between $55M lawyers’ bill, welfare victims’ compensation

By Alessia Passafiume THE CANADIAN PRESS OTTAWA-Cindy Blackstock, one of the people responsible for bringing forward a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal case that led to a historic settlement agreement, says she is concerned about an “imbalance” between what lawyers and victims will be paid. The Federal Court approved a landmark $23-billion class-action lawsuit 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 federal government and class-action lawyers from five legal firms have since reached an additional $55-million deal over legal fees, which they promised to negotiate as part of the settlement agreement but which has not yet been approved in Federal Court. “I don’t understand the system where the person who will have to have the most courage,…

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