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Results: 136 - 150 of 718
View Jaime Battiste Profile
Lib. (NS)
View Jaime Battiste Profile
2021-06-01 21:28 [p.7804]
Mr. Speaker, I have stated in the House that Bill C-15 helps us turn the chapter on the horrible legacy that has been left to us by the Indian Act. Bill C-15, UNDRIP and all the recommendations within UNDRIP, helps us get past what colonial governments thought about how we should govern ourselves. It gives us the ability to look at what indigenous people have put forward over 40 years, working with nation states. It was endorsed by so many indigenous organizations across Canada as the way forward.
I really feel that with the passage, and hopefully royal assent, of Bill C-15, we will get to that new chapter in indigenous and Crown relations.
View Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Profile
Lib. (ON)
Mr. Speaker, one month from now, we will celebrate Canada and the peace and prosperity we enjoy, and the remains of 215 indigenous kids as young as three were just found in unmarked graves at a so-called school that existed to eliminate indigenous people as indigenous people.
We, as Canadians, are often seen as champions of human rights around the world. Our charter has served as a model for other countries, and the remains of 215 indigenous kids at the Kamloops residential school are also a story of thousands of children stolen from their families and sent to unmarked graves across our country.
Millions of people from around the world have sought freedom in Canada and pursued safety in our multicultural society, and thousands of indigenous kids are buried in unmarked graves, abused, persecuted, murdered, all sanctioned by the state.
It is unthinkable, but known. When I first read the news, I knew it was known, but I still could not process it. I wrote to my constituents “at a loss for words when it comes to our shameful history”, and in place of my own, I shared the words of AFN National Chief, Perry Bellegarde, who wrote, “...while it is not new to find graves at former residential schools, it's always crushing to have that chapter's wounds exposed.”
Having found my words again with some effort, these four come to mind: This is our Canada. The question we face is what will we do about it.
At a minimum, we need to support a full investigation on every residential school site across Canada to ensure dignity for victims and proper accountability. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission wrote that, “The most basic of questions about missing children —Who died? Why did they die? Where are they buried?—has never been addressed or comprehensively documented by the Canadian government.”
Our government has been working with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to document and previously committed almost $34 million, but it is the beginning not the end of that process. More than that, we need a renewed and more ambitious commitment to meet the TRC's calls to action.
Since 2015, we have seen considerable, albeit incomplete, action to meet those calls. It is easy to point to symbols and say that it is only words, but lifting almost 70% of long-term water advisories, legislating indigenous languages protection with associated funding, child welfare legislation with associated funding, legislating the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and billions of federal funds invested in indigenous communities for housing, health and more, are not symbols.
My criticism is a different one. When the remains of 215 indigenous kids are discovered in Canada, when thousands more remain undiscovered, are we doing enough? As much as we have done, the answer is no.
I am fortunate in this position, as are all members, to meet people we would otherwise never have the opportunity to meet and to learn from people who enter our orbit who otherwise never would. For me, I have had the opportunity to learn about intergenerational trauma from constituent Tanya Talaga. I have also had the opportunity, because of our shared animal advocacy, to be closer to former senator, Murray Sinclair, than I otherwise would.
Having engaged in conversation with Senator Sinclair about what more we can do in our last conversation on the subject before his departure from the Senate, he pointed to the government's response to the COVID crisis, and he said to look at the scale of effort that was brought to bear in response to the COVID crisis. It is incredible. It is necessary, and it has been incredible. He then asked whether we would have had that same scale of crisis if it were only indigenous people affected. I do not think the answer is yes. I think that is a truth we have to turn our minds to, and we have to do better.
I think our government has done a lot, but we have to do better.
View Garnett Genuis Profile
CPC (AB)
Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for his very thought-provoking comments.
I would ask the member to reflect a bit more on this question of how we think about Canada and how we think about Canada Day in light of these revelations, which are unsurprising for some, but maybe new to others.
In the history of many nations, there are horrific atrocities that have been undertaken, and it can be hard to think about how we relate to our country in the midst of these events. I suppose one thing we can recognize as a country is the continuing struggle for reconciliation, and how that is very much a part of the Canadian identity. There have been horrific mistakes, and part of our identity has become to try to confront them, to apologize for them and to move forward. Those efforts are important, and they are still relatively unique in the world in terms of how nations respond to these kinds of events.
I wonder if the member could reflect, as we approach Canada Day, on what he will be thinking about in terms of what it means to be Canadian in light of these challenges and also these efforts that we are undertaking together.
View Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Profile
Lib. (ON)
Mr. Speaker, it will not be the first time I have turned my mind to this on Canada Day, but I will say, and I expect I will say a month from now, that I am proud of Canada and to be Canadian, but I am not proud of all of Canada, and I am certainly not proud of all of our history. In fact, I am ashamed of this part of our history. The only way that we can be as proud of Canada as we ought to be going forward is to do better and to reconcile with that history.
That is what we all need to collectively work together to do across parties, across provinces and as Canadians.
View Sébastien Lemire Profile
BQ (QC)
Mr. Speaker, I want to emphasize the message of our colleague from Beaches—East York. In this Parliament, he is probably the best example of a member who is progressive and who advocates for what he believes in. He is perhaps even a little bit forward-thinking in the way he plays his role.
In his speech, he said several times that we could be doing more. I would like to know what he proposes that we do. How can we do more in our relationship with indigenous peoples? What initiatives should we implement in order to move toward nation-to-nation reconciliation?
View Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Profile
Lib. (ON)
Mr Speaker, there are many things, but I will highlight two.
First, many indigenous people no longer live on reserve. Here in Beaches—East York, I represent an urban riding, and I think we need to do much more for our urban indigenous population. When I look at my own riding and the leadership of TASSC and the leadership of Lindsay Kretschmer and more, another woman who has entered my orbit, who I have been lucky to learn from, I think we need to do much more for urban indigenous people as a matter of reconciliation. I think we need to do much more, as it relates to ending poverty in the country for all people, including those who are indigenous.
The second thing I will say is in relation to child welfare. We are on the right path in this regard, and we need to heavily work with provinces, because this is not only within federal jurisdiction. I am very concerned that we will wake up in the future and look back and see the number of indigenous people who have been removed from their families, and we are living through that in 2021, and we will say in the future we are ashamed of that history. We are living through that today.
View Leah Gazan Profile
NDP (MB)
View Leah Gazan Profile
2021-06-01 21:37 [p.7806]
Mr. Speaker, I am trying to get to the truth here, and nobody is telling me the truth tonight.
Is what happened in residential schools genocide, which, according to the UN convention on genocide, seeks “to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: Killing members of the group; Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; Forcibly transferring children of the group to another”?
I just want the truth this evening.
View Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Profile
Lib. (ON)
Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for her passion on this among other subjects. A number of different acts constitute genocide. She has listed off a number of them. Let me say that, if the intent to destroy an ethnic or racial group through forcibly transferring children of the group to another group constitutes genocide, then yes, I think, in my view, this was genocide.
View Brad Vis Profile
CPC (BC)
Mr. Speaker, my riding borders Kamloops and many of my constituents or their relatives are buried and are among the 215, so my heart tonight is with the Secwépemc, St'at'imc, Nlaka'pamux, likely some Stó:lo and Tsilhqot'in first nations, which were all likely impacted by this horrific tragedy.
Yesterday afternoon, I was at Heritage Park. It is a beautiful park in Mission, British Columbia. It overlooks the Fraser River and on to the Cascade Mountains and Mount Baker. I was doing a staff meeting there. Heritage Park is adjacent to St. Mary's former residential school, the last one in Canada to close, in the 1990s.
There is a pathway from the parking lot near where I was that goes all the way to St. Mary's. When I was sitting there, a group of individuals came up. They were wearing orange and they were in ceremonial dress. I was thinking about this speech. I went over and introduced myself. We had a lengthy conversation and I found out that the matriarch of the family, who had gone to St. Mary's to pay homage to her brother lost in Kamloops, was part of three generations of their family who had gone to that school and had suffered at the hands of the church and the federal government.
I told them that I am not equipped to speak properly on their behalf and asked if they could spend some time with me and tell me a couple of messages that, as my constituents, they would want me to bring on their behalf to the people's House of Commons. They made two very specific points.
First, they said we need better education. Children today still do not know enough. We are not teaching enough about the atrocities that took place in Canada, and we can do better. They said they are pleased to see so many people finally paying attention to this issue that has been stuck in their hearts their entire life, but more needs to be done, both in our textbooks and in the areas in which we live.
They pointed out to me in that moment that right where I was sitting, and I have been in this park over a hundred times in my lifetime, that was the dormitory where their father, her former husband, had been abused. Right now it is literally one of the happiest places in Mission. It is surrounded by a beautiful garden. People come there to take pictures for their weddings. I passed that so many times and even as a member of Parliament, I was not aware that it was where their father had been abused. We can do better on the education. I take their words to heart and I share them today.
The second point they raised with me was about labour training. Tonight we have heard a lot about all the money the government is spending, but they said that a lot of the young men who want to get a job, provide for their family and have a purposeful career are held back by some of the trauma they faced either through their parents who were in the residential schools or themselves, because, as I mentioned, the school closed in the 1990s. They said the federal government needs to ensure that cultural training and cultural healing are a part of the funding we give to first nations to ensure that they can empower their own people with federal funds to do a better job to help the people.
With my final minute, I do not have all the words that are needed to represent my constituents tonight. I need to do a better job as a member of Parliament to reconcile with all of the first nations I represent. On behalf of my riding, I am so sorry that this happened and I share in the grief, the despair and the trauma that has re-emerged in so many of my constituents who are suffering today.
View Yvonne Jones Profile
Lib. (NL)
View Yvonne Jones Profile
2021-06-01 21:44 [p.7807]
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his remarks this evening. Like most who have spoken tonight, we are all experiencing the real hurt and pain of the incident that has been unfolding in this country, and especially in British Columbia.
We also know that today indigenous Canadians are still affected by the legacy of what has happened. We know that intergenerational trauma continues for so many families in this country that have been affected.
Recently we introduced UNDRIP: the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It is something indigenous people have asked for for 40 years in this country. How can you say today that you are working towards reconciliation? How can you say that we are on a journey of healing, and how can you say that we are moving forward with indigenous people in this country and not support UNDRIP?
View Brad Vis Profile
CPC (BC)
Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Labrador for her question, but I will say that all of the things she said I said were not necessarily things I actually said in the first place.
I support the goals and aspirations of UNDRIP. As the member for Kenora outlined earlier in his testimony, during committee there were a number of first nations that had issues with free, prior and informed consent, and that were looking for legal clarity on that matter. However, the government was not open to any amendments to the bill from the Conservative Party.
View Christine Normandin Profile
BQ (QC)
View Christine Normandin Profile
2021-06-01 21:46 [p.7807]
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech.
As he mentioned, this evening we are reflecting, apologizing and making amends, but we will have to get back to taking action. Indeed, we may have dragged our feet a little in the past. If we had not been so slow to act, we might not be here today, discussing the Kamloops residential school or even this entire issue. We might not be in a position where, when a tragic event happens, we must spring into action to try to make up for lost time.
I would simply like to ask my colleague the following question. Once the time for grieving and reflection is over, what does he think is the first thing we must do?
View Brad Vis Profile
CPC (BC)
Mr. Speaker, the one thing that has come forward from my indigenous constituents from this tragedy is that they want funding to conduct investigations of all of the residential schools in Canada, to determine where other lost souls may lie and to give them proper burials according to first nations tradition and culture.
That is one thing we could do for first nations: We could make sure that the government fully funds all the resources needed to commemorate and honour these individuals, as well.
View Paul Manly Profile
GP (BC)
View Paul Manly Profile
2021-06-01 21:47 [p.7807]
Mr. Speaker, I am glad the member is looking into the situation in his riding. I would tell him that anybody who has been speaking to indigenous people and learning about residential schools would not be surprised at all to hear this horrific news. Anybody who has been listening knows that children went missing, that children never returned from these schools, and that this was a horrific act of genocide inflicted by the Government of Canada.
Does the hon. member think we should have all of these sites secured? He mentioned that he was at a former residential school site. Should all of these sites be secured? Should the government be paying for ground-penetrating radar at all of these sites? Should all of the documentation related to children who died at these sites be released by the federal government, all levels of other governments and churches?
View Brad Vis Profile
CPC (BC)
Mr. Speaker, those are actually reasonable requests. As I previously mentioned, we need to fund any investigative work taking place at former residential schools. The Government of Canada should be paying for that.
Again, at the end of the day, this is a crime against humanity. There were 215 lives lost. In my opinion, that number is actually much larger: We just have not discovered them yet. The federal government should get to the bottom of this. Every child matters. My constituents are grieving right now. They deserve action.
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