The Saskatchewan Government has brought forward arguments in a legal battle that has drawn the ire of some First Nations groups in the province.
The government is currently involved in a class action lawsuit over the use of birth alerts – a practice of placing alerts on the files of pregnant women they considered to be at high risk.
The alerts ended in 2021, but a class action lawsuit was filed last year.
At court on the matter, it’s been reported that the government will be arguing that the Truth and Reconciliation Report and Missing and Murdering Indigenous Women and Girls Report are both unreliable as evidence in a court of law.
The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations issued a statement calling the argument from the province “egregious.”
“The Saskatchewan Government must recognize the validity of the TRC and MMIWG reports as foundational documents for truth and reconciliation,” said Chief Bobby Cameron. “We honour the courage of the survivors who shared their experiences through these inquiries, and the Saskatchewan Government must acknowledge the harm caused by birth alert practices to our mothers, families, and communities.”
The organization says questioning the reliability of these “nationally recognized reports move us further from justice, not closer to it.”