Some B.C. residents may be entitled to thousands or more after the Province agreed to settle a class action.
In 2019, the B.C. government announced it was ending the use of Birth alerts.
According to Kevin Conroy, the B.C. minister of children and family development at the time, said that the child welfare practice was coming to an end.
“Used in hospitals for decades in B.C. and in other provinces and territories, these alerts are issued, without the consent of the expectant parents, where there is a potential safety risk to infants at birth,” Conroy said.
Conroy said that the practice was primarily issued for marginalized women, and disproportionately, Indigenous women.
In 2021, a class action was filed against the Province, which settled for $66 million.
The class-action website states, “This class action says that Birth Alerts disclosed sensitive personal information and so were a privacy violation and an infringement of the rights to liberty and security. It also says that for Indigenous parents, Birth Alerts violated the right to equality.”
This year, the Province and the plaintiff, Adriana Zeleniski, agreed to settle.
“A person may be part of the class if a Birth Alert was issued about them in British Columbia during the class period. The class period begins May 31, 1980, and continues until May 8, 2026, the date the Court certified the class action.
The B.C. class action states that the settlement would provide a minimum of $2,000 in compensation to those who submit an eligible claim.
“Indigenous class members who submit an eligible Claim will receive additional compensation. The amount each class member receives will depend on the number of class members who submit eligible Claims.”
The class action adds that the proposed settlement is not an admission that the Province did anything wrong, but a “legal compromise to resolve the Claims.”
The settlement approval hearing is scheduled to take place on Dec. 4, 2026.
You can read more about the class action on the official website.