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What are class action lawsuits?

Class action lawsuits are lawsuits filed by one or more individuals on behalf of a group. In relation to Métis Citizens, these suits comprise legal proceedings initiated by a plaintiff on behalf of a group of Métis sharing similar claims against governments or institutions. The claims primarily seek recognition, redress, and compensation for harms arising from colonialism and assimilation practices, resulting in cultural loss, systemic negligence, and psychological and physical harms. To check your eligibility, application process, and other relevant information related to the class action lawsuit, please refer to the “Where to connect” information provided at the end of each class action lawsuit.

Which class action lawsuits are open for application?

The Île-à-la-Crosse School Settlement

The Île-à-la-Crosse (ILC) School Settlement is now open for applications. This class action lawsuit is for the Survivor Class Member who attended or lived in residence at the Île-à-la-Crosse School between January 1, 1860, and December 31, 1976.

On April 29, 2026, in a historic decision, the Saskatchewan Court of King’s Bench approved settlement agreements with the Government of Canada and the Government of Saskatchewan to provide compensation to Survivors who attended Île-à-la-Crosse School, as well as compensation to those who suffered harm at the school, including serious physical abuse or sexual abuse.

The ILC School was a residential boarding school founded by the Catholic Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) in 1860 to educate Indigenous children. Over the years, approximately 2,400 children from Île-à-la-Crosse and the surrounding region, stretching from Northern Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, attended the ILC School.

The students at the ILC School were mostly Métis, Dene, and Cree. For most of the history of the ILC School, it operated as a residential or a boarding school, as well as a “day school.” The children who attended as day schoolers did not reside in the residence facilities of the ILC School but lived off-site with their families. Most of the children forced to attend the ILC School did not have status under the Indian Act, RSC 1985, c I-5; hence, the school was not included in other Indian Residential Schools.

However, the Survivors at the ILC School endured abuse, mistreatment, and cultural denigration. Survivors reported being punished for speaking their Indigenous languages or engaging in cultural practices and being verbally and psychologically abused.

The Plaintiffs in the newly filed (2022) proposed class action lawsuit, Gardiner et al v Canada et al, consisted of six Survivors and intergenerational Survivors. This class action was against the Governments of Canada and Saskatchewan for breaching their statutory/constitutional, fiduciary, and common law duties to all the Île-à-la-Crosse school Survivors and their close family members.

On March 4, 2025, the plaintiffs and the federal Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs announced the execution of the Agreement in Principle, which led to the proposed $27 million agreement in principle, plus an additional $10-million legacy fund, which led to the proposed settlement agreement.

COMPENSATION:

• Experience Payments
  • Up to $10,000 for Survivors who attended the school for up to four years; OR
  • Up to $15,000 for Survivors who attended the school for five or more school years.
• Separate Abuse Compensation Payments of up to $50,000–$235,000 for Survivors who experienced sexual abuse or serious physical abuse.
• Possible extra Experience Payments for residence students if funds remain.
• Supports from projects funded by the Legacy Fund.

PLEASE NOTE: Survivor Class Members are eligible to receive compensation. This lawsuit and these settlements do not include anything that happened at the Rossignol School that has been run by the Île-à-la-Crosse School Board since 1975-76.

(Information Sources: https://goldblattpartners.com/ and info@ILEXSettlement.ca.)

Federal Indian Hospitals Settlement

In June 2025, the Federal Court approved the Settlement Agreement, which provides compensation to eligible Primary Class Members who suffered harm, including psychological, verbal, physical, or sexual abuse at a Federal Indian Hospital.

Federal Indian Hospitals were a network of hospitals run by the government of Canada at various times between 1936 and 1981. In January 2026, the federal government opened the claims period for those who were harmed at these segregated health facilities.

CURRENT STATUS:The claims period for the Federal Indian Hospitals settlement is open. Eligible Primary Class Members can now submit a claim for compensation for psychological, verbal, physical, or sexual abuse experienced while admitted to a Federal Indian Hospital during the years it was operated by the Government of Canada. The estates of class members who died after January 25, 2016, are also eligible to apply.

Under this class action suit, Minsky LLP and Cooper Regel LLP sought to represent all Indian, non-status Indian, Inuit, and Métis women who were sterilized in Alberta between 1972 and 2018 without their proper and informed consent. However, the Court has determined that this claim cannot be pursued as a class action suit against the Province of Alberta. Instead, the claimants must pursue their cases individually.

The law firm is encouraging any Indian, non-status Indian, Inuit, or Métis woman who was coerced or forcibly sterilized while receiving treatment at a federal Indian hospital, as well as any Indian, non-status Indian, Inuit, or Métis person who believes they were the victim of medical experimentation or medical malpractice to seek legal advice.

COMPENSATION: The compensation ranges from $10,000 to $200,000, based on the severity of the abuse experienced. In addition to individual compensation for eligible Primary Class Members, all Class Members will benefit from the additional support through the creation of a Foundation that will manage a Healing Fund ($150,000,000) and a Research and Commemoration Fund ($235,500,000). Additionally, the Settlement Agreement includes a $150,000,000 funding increase to Indigenous Services Canada, under existing programs, to support Class Members’ health and wellness during the implementation of the Settlement Agreement.

(Information sourced from Claims Period now open | Federal Indian Hospitals Settlement)

Indian Boarding Homes Class Action Lawsuit

The Indian Boarding Homes Class Action settlement provides compensation to Indigenous children placed in private homes between September 1, 1951, and June 30, 1992.

The Indian Boarding Homes Program was created by the Government of Canada to place children from First Nations, Métis, and Inuit villages in private homes between September 1, 1951, and June 30, 1992.

The Indian Boarding Homes Class Action Settlement is an agreement in response to two legal actions filed in the Superior Court of Quebec and the Federal Court of Canada on behalf of children who suffered harassment, abuse, loss of language and culture, and other harms because of their participation in the Indian Boarding Homes Program.

COMPENSATION: There are two different payments you can submit a claim for:

• Category 1 – Compensation for placement in the Indian Boarding Homes Program. Payment for this category is $10,000.
• Category 2 – Compensation for abuse. Payment for this category ranges from $10,000 to $200,000, depending on the abuse suffered.

You can submit a claim for Category 1 payment and a Category 2 payment. You must submit a Category 1 claim first, but a Category 2 claim can be submitted at the same time or later.

Note: People placed in the Indian Boarding Homes Program were mostly Indian and Inuit children. Some Métis children may have been included in the program on a limited basis. If you are Métis and were placed in a private home to attend primary or secondary school by the Government of Canada, you may qualify as a class member and therefore be eligible to apply.

Federal Indian Day Schools Class Action

This class action lawsuit sought damages from Canada for harms suffered by students who attended a day school. As part of the settlement, Canada will provide compensation to eligible members of the Survivor class.

On January 7, 2026, a second missing information protocol was approved. However, the protocol does not reopen claims or create new ones.

The protocol only refers to the claims that were submitted before January 13, 2023, which were still missing the required information. If additional information is not received to support the missing information by the applicable dates, the claim will be processed based on what is already on file.

The second missing information protocol was approved by the federal court for claimants meeting the following criteria:

1. Recent Representatives: when a claimant submitted a claim before January 13, 2023, and passed away or became incapacitated between January 1, 2025, and June 27, 2025, or if a person took steps to be recognized as a Personal Representative by June 27, 2025.
2. Claimants in Manitoba: when a claimant submitted a claim using a Manitoba address and was prevented from submitting missing information by June 27, 2025, because of a 2025 wildfire evacuation order.
3. Claims with Missing Addresses: Submitted a claim before January 13, 2023, and did not hear back. This may be due to missing/inaccurate address or missing/inaccurate contact information. Also, submitted a claim before January 23, 2023, and the claim had missing information, such as an incomplete/inaccurate address or contact information.

Other Relevant Class Action Lawsuits

Sixties Scoop Métis and Non-Status Indian Class Action Lawsuit

Canadian provinces began applying their child welfare laws in Indigenous communities in the 1960s. Child welfare authorities assigned to communities with high indigenous populations assessed child safety and welfare by non-Indigenous cultural standards. They received little or no training in Indigenous culture; consequently, they passed judgment on what they considered to be bad or neglectful parenting.

This resulted in the mass removal of Indigenous children from their communities by child welfare authorities and their intentional placement in foster care for adoption by white families. This practice of forced assimilation was known as the Sixties Scoop.

The provincial child welfare authorities also apprehended Indigenous children who did not have Indian status, such as Métis children, or children with Indian status not living on reserves.

As a result of these colonial policies, many children became disconnected from their communities, languages, and cultural identities. The forced removal of these children from their homes and communities had significant impacts. Many experienced a loss of identity, racism, abuse, addiction, and had negative experiences in the education system —often resulting in poorer educational and employment outcomes. Survivors of the Sixties Scoop continue to fight the legacy of these policies today. In 2018, fifteen class actions related to the Sixties Scoop were consolidated into one national class action in the Federal Court, Riddle v. Canada. Both the Federal Court and the Ontario Superior Court of Justice approved the Settlement. However, only status Indians and Inuit were eligible for individual compensation. Objections were made to the exclusion of Métis and Non-Status Indians.

The Present Class Action

The present action, Varley v. Canada, was instituted in 2018 on behalf of Métis and Non-Status Indian persons who were apprehended and placed in the care of non-Indigenous, specifically white-foster or adoptive parents.

On June 7, 2021, the Federal Court  certified this action as a class proceeding. In this suit, the Court defined members as all Indigenous persons, excluding Indian persons (as defined in the Indian Act) and Inuit persons, who were removed from their homes in Canada between January 1, 1951, and December 31, 1991, and who were placed in the care of non-Indigenous foster or adoptive parents. This means the Métis and Non-Status Indian persons were included in the new class action.

The notice of certification for this class action was issued between July 2, 2021, and November 3, 2021.

Recent Updates as of May 7, 2025

On April 29, 2025, the Federal Court released its decision following the hearing in December 2024. The Court denied Canada’s motion for dismissal of this class action based on limitation periods. A limitation period refers to the expiry of a legal deadline to initiate a lawsuit. However, the Court rejected this argument and decided that the limitation period could not prevent the case from moving ahead. The Court also partially granted the plaintiffs’ motion and held that Canada owed a duty to protect the languages and cultures of Métis and Non-Status children adopted through Saskatchewan’s Adopt Indian Métis (AIM) program. However, it decided that Canada did not owe a duty to protect the languages and cultures of Métis and Non-Status children adopted in other provinces or through other programs.

The plaintiffs will be appealing this decision in the Federal Court of Appeal to determine whether Canada owed a legal duty to protect the languages and cultures of all Class Members.

A copy of the Federal Court’s decision is available at this link.