VANCOUVER -- On the eve of a court case that could cost the federal government as much as $8 billion, First Nations advocates rallied in Vancouver Sunday to demand that Ottawa pay up.

They called on federal judges to uphold the decision of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal awarding monetary compensation to Indigenous children who were wrongly placed in foster care after 2007, as well as to their parents or grandparents.

"I was so angry that I took it out on everyone, but the anger kept me alive,” victim Brandi Bird told the crowd that had gathered at Crab Park. “I knew I was worth more than the system ever considered.”

The compensation order stems from a January 2016 decision, in which the tribunal ruled that the Canadian government had discriminated against First Nations children by underfunding child welfare and medical services on reserves and in the Yukon.

“It wasn't until I became an adult that I learned I had an aunty living ten minutes away from me, the entire time," said another victim at Sunday's rally.

The federal government is appealing the order, saying it agrees that there should be compensation, but arguing that the timing of the election campaign made it impossible to organize such compensation by a Dec. 10 deadline.

For Dawn Johnson, who was in foster care as a child and has worked with youth in care since aging out of the system, the government has already had plenty of time.

"They've been fighting this since 2006," Johnson said. "We're going on 14 years that the government is willfully and recklessly choosing economics and finances over the lives of Indigenous children and families."

Johnson was one of the organizers of Sunday's event, which began with a press conference at the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs boardroom, and was followed by a march to Crab Park from the intersection of Main and Hastings streets.

She said the march and rally were intended both to put pressure on the court and the federal government, and to memorialize a young man who recently died, not long after surviving government care.

"It was a direct result of multiple systemic failures throughout his life," Johnson said of the young man's death. "The reality of outcomes for us as Indigenous survivors from care - as children, youth, family members and communities - is that we often don't make it. This needs to stop."

With files from The Canadian Press and CTV News Vancouver's Ian Holliday