Oh Canada

Indian Boarding Homes Class Action

Industry: Indigenous Justice / Government Settlement Communications

The Challenge

The Indian Boarding Homes Class Action Settlement was historic—and complex. The communication challenge? Massive.

The audience: First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities across all of Canada.
The mission: Spread awareness, drive trust, increase claim submissions, and support survivors through a sensitive and highly emotional legal process.
The constraints: Dual-language communications (English and French), cultural and historical sensitivity, and a nuanced understanding of trauma.
The kicker: It all had to be clear, respectful, trustworthy, and logistically smooth—from Facebook captions to full-scale commercial broadcasts.

The client initially came to Unbridled for help with a few digital pieces. But what started as support quickly grew into a full-scale partnership managing every facet of communication, strategy, and execution.

The Unbridled Solution

Unbridled went all in—functioning as IBH’s full-service marketing and communications arm. We built systems, managed messaging, designed visuals, and became an extension of their team. Every piece of communication, from a Facebook post to a national commercial, was reviewed through Indigenous consultation and translation processes.

Key approaches:

Strategic Ops: Weekly marcomm meetings, approval pathways, and workflow development.
Cultural Accuracy: Indigenous oversight on scripts, visuals, captions, and audio.
Bilingual Execution: All content in English and French—including website, social, email, blogs, and interactive guides.
Human-First Messaging: From radio scripts to commercial voiceovers—everything put survivors first.
Creative Cohesion: Consistent visuals, voice, tone, and user flow across every platform and medium.

Brand Deliverables

This is a hybrid of project-based and ongoing scope, including (but not limited to):

Strategy & Brand Management

Marketing strategy, process development & implementation
Brand standards creation and oversight
Full project management, cross-departmental coordination

Communications & Media

Media campaigns across Canada
Earned media oversight, tracking, and reporting
Print + digital ad design
Media prep + partner management

Website Management (ENG/FR)

Rebuild of both the English and French website for a more visually appealing website and greater user experience
Weekly updates: stats, forms, blogs, events
SEO strategy + blog content development
Embedded claim guides
Resource updates & user flow improvements
Multi-language form edits + additions

Social Media Management

Daily content design + copywriting
Audience targeting and geotargeted ad boosting
Paid ad coordination + post performance tracking
Reputation management and comment monitoring
Platform management across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn

Email Marketing

Email platform system setup + integration
List management, migration, and segmentation
Branded template design (ENG/FR)
Monthly campaigns: Community Engagement + Community Update
Inbox and reply managament

Interactive Tools

12 custom-built, bilingual interactive claim filing guides (6 ENG / 6 FR)
Embedded directly on the English and French websites
Visual and UX design + claim form walkthrough logic

Video Production

Concept, scripting, design, score, subtitles & rollout of 2 national commercials
4-part commercial series strategy and scripting (Commercials 1–4)
Indigenous voiceovers (ENG, FR, Cree, Dene)
Commercial certification, attestation letters, and platform file delivery