Indigenous Group Files Legal Challenge Over ‘Inadequate’ COVID-19 Funding

Robert Bertrand, national chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, addresses a news conference along with Francyne Joe, right, president of the Native Women's Association of Canada, at a meeting of Canadian premiers and Indigenous leaders at Le Pays de la Sagouine, a recreated historic Acadian village, in Bouctouche, N.B. on July 18, 2018. The Congress of Aboriginal Peoples has filed an application in the Federal Court of Canada, challenging the funding allocation of $250,000 it received as part of a COVID-19 fund earmarked for off-reserve Indigenous peoples. Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press

OTTAWA—An national Indigenous organization that represents First Nations, Inuit and Metis living off-reserve and in urban centres is taking the federal government to court over what it alleges is “inadequate and discriminatory funding” for the COVID-19 response.

The Congress of Aboriginal Peoples has filed an application in the Federal Court of Canada, challenging the funding allocation of $250,000 it received as part of a COVID-19 fund earmarked for off-reserve Indigenous peoples.