OTTAWA — Ottawa is asking the Federal Court to overturn a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal order directing it to work with First Nations to reform the child welfare system, and for a new panel to be struck to determine next steps in a nearly two-decade-long legal battle.

The order, released in August, came nine years after the tribunal concluded that the federal government had discriminated against First Nations children by underfunding the on-reserve child welfare system, following a joint 2007 human rights complaint filed by the Assembly of First Nations and the Caring Society.

Progress on a child welfare agreement stalled when First Nations twice rejected a $47.8 billion deal last year, and Ottawa told the tribunal in May that the requests being put to it were “unreasonable.”

The tribu

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