Thunder Bay man seeks accountability for lost childhood

A lawsuit by children of the 'Sixties Scoop' was stalled in January when the case was sent back to be re-certified as a class action.

When William Campbell wanted to find his biological parents, he didn't even know where to look. He knew he was born in Kirkland Lake, Ont. but didn't know from which of the three First Nations in the area he'd been taken as a child.

Campbell is one of more than 5,000 people in northern Ontario (an estimated 16,000 across the province) who were scooped up by child welfare agencies in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. They were adopted out to non-Aboriginal homes across Canada, the United States and as far away as Europe.

"I got robbed of having a proper childhood," the 42-year-old said. "I got robbed of having a loving family."