Liberals Haven’t Complied with Jordan’s Principle, Cindy Blackstock Says

Almost two decades since Cindy Blackstock and the Assembly of First Nations took the federal government to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal for knowingly underfunding services for 165,000 status First Nations children and youth, Blackstock says kids are still going without needed health supports.

The tribunal ruled in Blackstock and the assembly’s favour in 2016, declaring that the federal government’s design and funding of First Nations child welfare and medical services for kids and youth were “racially discriminatory.”

Since that time, federal legislation returning First Nations jurisdiction over child welfare has been introduced and passed, with provinces such as B.C. following suit. Negotiations for implementation and long-term operational funding remain ongoing.

But Jordan’s Principle, a nearly 20-year-old policy declaring that First Nations kids’ medical needs should be prioritized — ahead of figuring out which government would foot the bill — has not been adequately fulfilled, Blackstock says.

In an interview on Wednesday, Blackstock told The Tyee the federal government has received close to 30 non-compliance and procedure orders from the tribunal since 2016 over its failure to sustainably fund and reform both First Nations child welfare and applications to Jordan’s Principle.

Jordan’s Principle funding, provided through Indigenous Services Canada, works by providing First Nations kids with funding for a service or support that achieves “substantive equality” with health-care access of other kids in Canada. This can range from funding physical supports like hearing aids and bathroom grab bars to addictions treatment, education or medical screening and land-based cultural activities on reserve.

By the federal government’s own account, there is currently a backlog of 140,000 applications for Jordan’s Principle funding.

“Canada is choosing not to comply with the legal orders, and that means disruptions in services, denials, long wait times, and what we’re really seeing from Canada is a lot of excuses, instead of compliance,” Blackstock said, adding the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, where she is executive director, continues to take the government back to the tribunal over its non-compliance.

“We cannot allow Canada to just flood the system with non-compliance and then say, ‘Well, there’s so many areas of non-compliance that nobody knows what to do.’ We have to go in there and address it.”

Despite promising to fully fund Jordan’s Principle in the 2021 federal election, the then-Liberal government began denying previously covered supports for First Nations children and youth last year.

For example, between December 2024 and February 2025, public school districts in Alberta and Saskatchewan announced they were laying off hundreds of education assistants because they were denied previously granted Jordan’s Principle funding.

To explain why it had narrowed the program eligibility, the federal government cited cases of program “abuse,” including approvals for international travel, gaming consoles, elite sports training and glow sticks, as well as a 367 per cent increase in approved applications between 2021 to 2024, from just over 600,000 requests to almost three million.

In a recent non-compliance motion, the tribunal agreed that some of the previously approved expenses fell outside the scope of Jordan’s Principle.

But Blackstock said it’s the federal government that approved these requests, which have always required letters of support from a health professional, Elder or knowledge keeper stating how the request would meet a child’s health needs.

The government has the power to deny requests that don’t meet the criteria, she added.

The government has also resisted First Nations Child and Family Caring Society-suggested solutions for ending the application backlog, such as processing funding applications through an app with defined options, instead of through individually emailed applications, Blackstock said.

“There are young people out there for which things that may seem frivolous to us actually are clearly a part of a good treatment plan,” Blackstock added. Pediatricians have told her video games, for example, can be a proper mental health support for a young person isolated from others.

Program reform and backlog

Jordan’s Principle is named after Jordan River Anderson of Norway House Cree Nation, whose pediatric care was subject to a fight between the federal and Manitoba governments in the early 2000s. That’s because, while provincial governments generally handle the provision of health-care services, health care, education, child welfare and housing for First Nations living on reserve is funded by the federal government.

Anderson’s doctors recommended he receive home-based care support on reserve.

But because the governments could not agree on who would pay for his care, Anderson remained in hospital from age two until his death at five years old.

The Jordan’s Principle policy, initially proposed by Blackstock in 2005, says care should be paid for by the first government contacted for the support, and determining if the federal or provincial government ultimately takes responsibility should come after the care is delivered.

In 2007, the policy passed unanimously in the House of Commons.

But in 2016 the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal found the narrow scope of the policy meant next to zero applications for funding under Jordan’s Principle had been approved.

The tribunal ordered the government to apply Jordan’s Principle to all First Nations children, regardless of whether they lived on reserve or not.

Since then the federal government has spent $8.8 billion on Jordan’s Principle, Patty Hajdu, then-minister of Indigenous Services Canada, said in a ministry statement last month.

Just one month prior, on Feb. 10, 2025, Hajdu had announced reforms to the program in order to reduce a 140,000-application backlog and ensure eligibility under the scope of the program.

Reforms included denying funding for requests such as renovations to homes, elite sports training and school-related supports, unless proven to be related to a child’s medical needs.

Applications for support in public and private schools, such as education assistants, for example, would be redirected to provincial governments, the First Nation’s government or other applicable federal programs.

These supports had been approved under Jordan’s Principle previously, Blackstock noted, and they went a long way towards supporting First Nations kids’ education.

“We got a call from a young person who was really struggling in school, ready to drop out, felt that they just couldn’t succeed,” Blackstock told The Tyee.

But in-school education supports funded under Jordan’s Principle helped turn that around, leading to the student graduating high school and attending university, she said.

“That’s the type of outcome that can happen from just giving a kid the support they need to succeed in school. It’s really essential.”

What the parties are promising

The Liberal election platform includes pledges to “continue to fund Jordan’s Principle” as well as “move forward” on the work outlined in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action — implementing Jordan’s Principle is No. 3.

But the Liberal government’s non-compliance orders “raise serious questions about Canada’s willingness to comply with its own laws, and also how much you can rely on Canada to fulfil any agreements it signs,” Blackstock said, adding she is unaware of any other case in Canada receiving close to 30 non-compliance orders.

The Conservatives do not mention Jordan’s Principle in their platform, nor do they reference health-care supports for First Nations people.

Decrying the federal government’s “top-down, bureaucratic, paternalistic and slow” approach to issues facing Indigenous people, which includes First Nations, Métis and Inuit people, the Conservatives instead promise financial prosperity through increased revenue sharing and equity ownership opportunities in major resource and industrial projects.

Residential school denialism has featured prominently in the election, particularly related to Conservative candidates.

North Island-Powell River candidate Aaron Gunn, for example, faced calls for his removal after social media comments resurfaced in which Gunn said the level of harm faced by the 150,000 Indigenous children forced to attend the institutions did not amount to genocide.

Testimony of thousands of survivors describing the sexual, physical and mental abuse they endured at residential schools was the core of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission inquiry, which released its final report in 2015.

Estimates for the number of children who died at these schools range from 4,100 to 6,000. Survivors were robbed of their culture, language and connection to their families and communities.

In 2021, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls concluded that Canada had perpetrated a genocide against Indigenous people.

Blackstock sees a connection between denialism and issues like under-resourcing Jordan’s Principle not being discussed this election.

“It really is this acceptance of harm to Indigenous Peoples without serious consequence,” she said.

The NDP addresses the backlog of Jordan’s Principle requests in their platform, promising to hire more staff and improve case management.

“Long-term and predictable funding will be guaranteed in legislation, and we will work with the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society to implement the Spirit Bear Plan,” the platform reads, referencing a plan spearheaded by Blackstock to fully fund services for First Nations children, including Jordan’s Principle.

Similarly, the Green Party platform says that if the Greens form government, Jordan’s Principle would be fully funded, “ensuring no First Nations child is denied care due to jurisdictional disputes.”

When the government agrees to make changes it is court-ordered to do, but refuses to follow through, “that feeds into denialism,” Blackstock said.

Governments need to do more than talk the talk, Blackstock said. They need to actually fulfil rights, duties and obligations.