Tim Harper writes for the Tribunal will rule whether Ottawa retaliated against Cindy Blackstock
OTTAWA — Cindy Blackstock has spent more than five years trying to hold Ottawa accountable for a funding gap on the welfare of aboriginal children on reserves.
Instead of dealing with that funding gap, Ottawa has spent nearly as long searching for dirt on Blackstock. In total, it has spent more than $3 million trying to derail her bid to have the government’s funding policy ruled as discrimination against native children.
Fresh evidence of government spying on Blackstock and a court victory for the aboriginal children’s advocate show Ottawa is losing this fight, despite its chilling surveillance of a woman they seek to discredit.
It was less than a year ago that Blackstock went public, after learning through her own access-to-information request that the government had been spying on her. It has been monitoring her Facebook account, sending officials to hear her speak and compiling a voluminous file on her.
In a decision released last week, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal agreed to add allegations of government retaliation against Blackstock as part of a historic hearing on the larger matter set to begin next February….
Tribunal will decide whether Ottawa retaliated against native rights' activist Cindy Blackstock