FNLC and Our Children Our Way Society acknowledge National Child Day – a day to celebrate and uphold the rights of all children! 

November 20, 2023

(xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh)/Vancouver, B.C.) – On November 20^th, the First Nations Leadership Council (FNLC) and the Indigenous Child & Family Services Directors Our Children Our Way Society (OCOW) acknowledge National Child Day – a day to celebrate and uphold the rights of all children!  National Child Day is celebrated annually on November 20^th, marking the anniversary of the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989. Canada signed onto this Convention in 1991. On this same day, we also stand with UNICEF to acknowledge and celebrate World Children’s Day – an annual day of action for children, by children.

Children First Canada is upholding #EveryChildEveryRight as the 2023 theme for National Child Day. In their commitment to reconciliation, Children First Canada is recognizing the unique rights of First Nations, Métis and Inuit children – honouring the past, acknowledging the present, and igniting hope for the future.

Unfortunately, Indigenous children in British Columbia continue to experience multifaceted discrimination within the child welfare system. Earlier this year, the BC Assembly of First Nations (BCAFN), the First Nations Summit (FNS) and the Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC), called upon the Government of Canada and the Government of British Columbia to immediately cease discriminating against Indigenous children and families receiving provincially funded child and family services, to ensure discrimination never occurs again, and to compensate the children and families who have endured discrimination. The Chiefs also designated November 20^th as a Day of Action to end discrimination against First Nations children, including British Columbia’s ongoing discrimination in the funding of off-reserve child and family services.