Janvier 2024

Jordan’s Principle is a legal rule named in memory of Jordan River Anderson, a First Nations child from Norway House Cree Nation in Manitoba. Born with complex medical needs, Jordan spent more than two years unnecessarily in hospital, waiting to leave, while the Province of Manitoba and the federal government argued over who should pay for his at home care—care that would have been paid for immediately had Jordan not been First Nations. Jordan died in the hospital at the age of five years old, never having spent a day in a family home. 

With the support of their community of Norway House Cree Nation and others, Jordan’s family gifted his name to the creation of child-first principle to ensure First Nations children could access the services they need without denial, delay, or disruption.

Unfortunately, despite the unanimous support of the House of Commons in 2007 for a broad definition, the federal government went on to implement Jordan’s Principle in a manner so narrow that few, if any, First Nations children qualified.

In a landmark ruling on January 26, 2016, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT or Tribunal) ruled that Canada’s definition of Jordan’s Principle was discriminatory and ordered the federal government to take immediate measures to implement the full and proper scope of Jordan’s legacy.

Canada failed to comply with the Tribunal’s ruling and three months later, in April 2016, the CHRT issued its first non-compliance order against Canada. In all, the Tribunal has been forced to issue more than 20 additional orders, many of them non-compliance orders against Canada. The Tribunal orders have led to over 1.4 million products, services, and supports for First Nations kids through Jordan's Principle. The Tribunal has also ordered Canada to review previous service requests dating from April 1, 2009, whether made pursuant to Jordan's Principle or otherwise, to determine what supports children/youth would or should have received had Canada applied the proper definition of Jordan's Principle.