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Results: 106 - 120 of 280
View Justin Trudeau Profile
Lib. (QC)
View Justin Trudeau Profile
2021-06-01 18:25 [p.7780]
Mr. Chair, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his words and his support in moving forward with the renewed citizenship oath, Bill C-8, which would ensure that we recognize indigenous peoples properly within the core of Canadian citizenship. I also thank him for his commitment to working with us to move forward on fulfilling the calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
We moved forward with $33 million in budget 2019 to help communities across the country with the burial sites associated with residential schools. We need to work with those communities and with indigenous partners to make sure that we are meeting their concerns and getting support to them. However, we will do that together. All parties and all levels of government stand united in wanting to move forward together, as Canadians expect us to.
View Sébastien Lemire Profile
BQ (QC)
Mr. Chair, on behalf of myself and the Bloc Québécois, I would like to mourn alongside the grieving families and extend my deepest condolences to the Secwépemc nation and all indigenous peoples in Quebec and Canada who are united in their grief and suffering following the gruesome discovery of the children buried in Kamloops.
This situation calls for a historical perspective. We cannot rewrite history, but we can look to the future. Could this be an opportunity to do something more, to revisit the infamous Indian Act and rewrite it from scratch, which is what people want, and also rethink how we dialogue with indigenous communities? Can we take this opportunity to reflect on a nation-to-nation dialogue with indigenous peoples and finally put an end to the Indian Act?
View Justin Trudeau Profile
Lib. (QC)
View Justin Trudeau Profile
2021-06-01 18:27 [p.7780]
Mr. Chair, I thank my colleague for his comments and his question.
We do indeed have to move along the path to reconciliation together. As partners, we have to respect indigenous peoples and listen to what they want, their dreams and their concerns.
Yes, we need a nation-to-nation dialogue. That does not necessarily mean Ottawa will be the one finding solutions. On the contrary, solutions that do not come from indigenous communities themselves are not solutions. That is why we want to get past the Indian Act, which is a colonial relic. However, we have to do it in step with indigenous communities. Many communities are no longer governed by the act, and there will be others. We will work hand in hand with them and follow their lead.
View Leah Gazan Profile
NDP (MB)
View Leah Gazan Profile
2021-06-01 18:28 [p.7780]
Mr. Chair, it is a privilege to ask a question in the House.
The Prime Minister spoke a lot about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but his government has been slow to act, including on calls to action 71 to 76. Also, in the midst of this debate, the government is fighting St. Anne's Indian Residential School survivors in court. It is a violent act that people who underwent the most genocidal violence still have to prove that violence even today, after the remains of 215 children were found in a mass grave. The government also continues to fight little children against the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruling.
On this very occasion, will the Prime Minister commit to providing communities with whatever they need, so they can take the steps they wish in respect of calls to action 71 to 76?
View Justin Trudeau Profile
Lib. (QC)
View Justin Trudeau Profile
2021-06-01 18:30 [p.7780]
Mr. Chair, as I said, in budget 2019, we put forward millions of dollars for exactly that, and it is something we are working on with the communities. We understand that initiatives like this, given the trauma and hurt these communities have gone through and continue to go through as horrific discoveries are made, require care and support. That is why the communities themselves are leading this process, in rhythm and approach, and why there is support for communities. The federal government will be there with whatever supports they need as we uncover the truth, as we support families and as we get justice for these smallest of victims.
View Carolyn Bennett Profile
Lib. (ON)
Mr. Chair, I am addressing the House from my home in Toronto, on the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. I would like to pay tribute to the indigenous peoples who paddled these waters and whose moccasins walked this land.
First and foremost, I want to say that we are heartbroken for the families and communities affected by the tragic news of last week's discovery of human remains buried on the site of a former residential school in Kamloops.
We are all profoundly shaken by this horrifying discovery, and our thoughts are with the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation people as they mourn and come together to heal and support one another. After decades of work because of a knowing, the Tk'emlúps First Nation has found its missing children.
We will be there to support Tk'emlúps and all communities across Canada affected by missing children, the legacy of residential schools and the intergenerational trauma it inflicted. We are also committed to supporting survivors, their families and communities across Canada to locate, and memorialize through ceremony, the children who died or went missing while attending residential schools.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established to find the truth and the painful and lasting impacts of residential schools. In memory of all the children who went missing while attending residential schools, and in support of their grieving families and communities, our government has been working with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to develop and maintain the national residential school student death register and to establish and maintain an online registry of residential school cemeteries, in response to calls to action 72 and 73. Also, through budget 2019, we committed $33.8 million over three years to support calls to action 74 to 76.
Over the summer and fall of 2020, we hosted a series of 16 virtual engagement sessions, with over 140 participants, which provided a further opportunity for dialogue with a variety of indigenous organizations across the country, such as survivors groups, advocacy organizations, healing and cultural centres, churches and communities, archives and research institutions, provincial and territorial heritage practitioners, knowledge keepers and health support workers. They have been very clear. They want the work to be indigenous-led, community-based, survivor-centric and culturally sensitive. They want support for their research and access to archeological expertise. We learned more about their wishes for appropriate commemoration ceremonies and markers, and reburial in home communities where requested.
I thank all members of the House for the passage of Bill C-5 last Friday, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. This will unlock $13.8 million in budget 2021 to support more commemoration and the ability to educate all Canadians on the painful legacy of residential schools.
Last Thursday night I was inspired by the resilience of the leadership in B.C. Charlene Belleau, the chair of the First Nations Health Council, said this would be an opportunity for healing and coming together. Kúkpi7 Casimir told me that she was making sure the community was supported and was bringing together the former Kúkpi7s to organize the ceremonies that the communities will need to unlock the healing.
Communities know what they need. We will be there to support their way forward.
I thank the Prime Minister for his heartfelt words when he said that saying sorry is not enough. He is committed to standing with communities as we begin to right these wrongs.
As the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, I want to give my profound apologies to the families and survivors. I promise that we will work together with them to find these lost children.
View Dan Albas Profile
CPC (BC)
Mr. Chair, I certainly appreciate the minister and her words today.
I would like to raise the experience and some of the words from Upper Nicola Band's Chief Harvey McLeod, whom I have tremendous respect for and who went to the school in question. He has said:
I went back to the two years that I attended. I know that there were incidents happening there because I went through a lot of experiences myself. I know people that just disappeared, and we assumed that they ran away and got away and are at home somewhere, but never did see them again.
We as communities and leadership will find the best way of doing this and taking care of our people. We want to all be on the same page when it comes to having the ceremony to bring our people home.
Would the minister please respond to some of the words from Upper Nicola Band's Chief Harvey McLeod?
View Carolyn Bennett Profile
Lib. (ON)
Mr. Chair, it is an honour for me to respond to that question. Chief Harvey McLeod has taught me a great deal, and I remember conversations with his heartfelt descriptions of the pain that so many in his community endured.
He is absolutely right. The communities know what needs to be done, and our job is to support communities in the way they choose to go forward. It is a partnership, but they know what is needed and we will be there for them.
View Sébastien Lemire Profile
BQ (QC)
Mr. Chair, meegwetch.
In this debate on residential schools, I would like to say that when my sister was at CEGEP, she made a documentary on a residential school that happened to be located on our Anishinabe territory in Abitibi-Témiscamingue.
Richard Kistabish, my friend Ejinagosi, who was recently appointed a member of the Global Task Force for Making a Decade of Action for Indigenous Languages, said at the time that indigenous people “feel like apples”, meaning that they are red on the outside, but people want them to be white on the inside. These residential schools were designed to assimilate indigenous children, to kill the Indian in the child. Unfortunately, we can see that they also killed them for real.
The minister gave a forward-looking speech, for which I salute her. What measures can she take to commit to sustaining indigenous languages? That may be one way to honour the victims, by making sure indigenous languages are preserved throughout history. What will she commit to doing in that regard?
Meegwetch.
View Carolyn Bennett Profile
Lib. (ON)
Mr. Chair, I thank the hon. member for his question.
Indigenous languages have almost disappeared because of assimilation policies, as the Prime Minister said. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action are very important to us, especially for protecting indigenous languages.
That is why our government passed Bill C-91, an act respecting indigenous languages, in order to promote and protect indigenous languages. This is very important for all indigenous and first nations languages, including Inuktitut and Michif. This issue is very important to our government, and I thank everyone for their support.
Meegwetch.
View Elizabeth May Profile
GP (BC)
View Elizabeth May Profile
2021-06-01 18:39 [p.7782]
Mr. Chair, this is a time that is very difficult, for Canadians to face the truth. It is the settler-culture Canadians who have to face the truths that indigenous-culture Canadians have known for a long time.
I find it very sobering and distressing to realize that in 2009 there was a request from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for $1.5 million to begin the project to find the burial sites of the missing children ripped from their families and never, ever allowed to go home because they had died. We know that it was not this minister's government that turned down that request for $1.5 million, but why have we delayed so long?
What can the minister tell us about why we delayed so long to provide the funds? Kukpi7 Rosanne Casimir had to raise the money within that community to start to find the burial mass grave next to the Kamloops former residential school.
View Carolyn Bennett Profile
Lib. (ON)
Mr. Chair, I thank the member for the question, and I too remember when there were many things the Truth and Reconciliation Commission had asked the previous government for that were declined or that actually ended up in court.
As the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation was set up, we immediately invested $10 million for that to continue in 2016. That relationship has been very important. They have been directing and supporting the research, the archives and the accessibility for families and communities to actually learn the truth that they had found over those very difficult six years.
There is no question that the missing children project and the working group during the commission did a phenomenal job, which resulted in calls to action 71 to 76. Call to action 71 was about the coroners with the provinces and territories. We are doing calls to action 72 and 73 with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation and we have engaged—
View Erin O'Toole Profile
CPC (ON)
View Erin O'Toole Profile
2021-06-01 18:42 [p.7782]
Mr. Chair, the residential school system is a dark and painful part of the Canadian story. Tragically, new chapters are still being added to this sad history.
Just days ago, the discovery of a mass grave in Kamloops, containing the remains of 215 schoolchildren, was a heartbreaking reminder of the pain indigenous children, their families and their communities were subjected to through residential schools.
This weekend, my nine-year-old son, Jack, asked me why the flags were at half-mast in Ottawa. I had the difficult task of explaining to my son the terrible news of the graves of children found at the site of a residential school. “Kids are not supposed to die at school, Dad,” he told me. Sometimes the moral clarity of a child reminds us of our responsibilities as parliamentarians.
As a father, I am devastated to think that 215 children were buried at their school and lost for decades. As a member of Parliament and leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, I think this tragic discovery is shocking, and we have a duty to heal the wounds from this chapter of our history.
Yesterday, I wrote the Prime Minister to ask him to take immediate action to address this unspeakable discovery and support the indigenous communities and our country, which is in mourning. I will repeat my request for immediate action here in the House and pledge our full support as an opposition to act swiftly.
First, we have asked the Prime Minister to accelerate the completion of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action 71 to 76, dealing with missing children, burial sites, identification, commemoration, and to work, step by step, side by side, with families and indigenous communities in this important part of reconciliation. These calls to action should be prioritized immediately.
In addition, in the spirit of reconciliation, we are calling on the Parliament of Canada to pass Bill C-8 to recognize the aboriginal and treaty rights of first nations, Inuit and Métis people. This legislation will incorporate references to the aboriginal and treaty rights of first nations, Inuit and Métis people into the oath of citizenship. Together, we are participating in the reconciliation process.
Responsible citizenship in this great country of Canada requires us to commit to the ideals of our country: peace, order and good government, equality and opportunity for all. At many points in our history, we have fallen short of these ideals and these values we cherish. This is particularly the case in our collective failures with respect to indigenous Canadians.
Healing is the path forward. Healing is a powerful thing.
Roseann Kiyawasew is 93 years old today, but as a child, she and two siblings attended a residential school in Sturgeon Lake in northern Alberta. It was there that her little brother, Johnny, just 11 at the time, developed what was likely pneumonia. His condition was exacerbated by abuse and he died alone in hospital away from his family with no loved one to hold his hand or to give him comfort.
For more than 70 years, Roseann did not know what happened to her little brother and she lived with the trauma of feeling like she could have somehow done something to keep him safe. That haunted her. Roseann does not believe her parents were ever notified of Johnny's death, nor were they told where his young body was buried. In 2013, through extensive research, Roseann was finally able to locate Johnny's unmarked gravesite in High Prairie, nearly a hundred kilometres from their home.
In his memorial, Johnny's sister shared the following words about him: “You had acquired great strength from our forefathers and wisdom beyond your years. You were always so gentle, kind, caring and helpful. You had developed, through your pain, acceptance, courage, patience, understanding and tolerance.”
I have no doubt that Johnny's family was robbed of a boy who would have grown into a compassionate, intelligent man, an important member of their community and someone who could have given this country so much.
Roseann went on in her memorial to Johnny by saying, “Through the years, we often wondered about your final days alone, and the location of your resting place. Now that we have found each other again, perhaps we may begin to heal.”
The Kiyawasew family permitted me to share the story of Johnny to be a message of hope to the 215 families who are still waiting to be reunited with their loved ones, that they too may heal.
I also want to speak directly to Roseann from the floor of the House of Commons today. She is now living in a long-term care home in Grimsby, Ontario. I want to say to her, “You did not fail your brother, Roseann. Canada failed Johnny. The trauma you have had to live through and the grace you are showing in sharing your family's story of healing gives me hope that healing is possible for the 215 families of the children found in Kamloops. It also gives me hope that healing and reconciliation are possible for our country.”
This is not about partisanship or politics. It is about taking a step closer to reconciliation. Every MP and every Canadian has a role to play in reconciliation.
To me, reconciliation means recognizing areas where we have made mistakes or failed to do better. It also means striving to be better. It means learning from when we fall short ourselves in the journey of reconciliation, as I have in the past, but also acknowledging that reconciliation requires more than important but only symbolic gestures. It requires action. It requires restoring trust in the federal government and its institutions. It means building partnerships with indigenous communities for the well-being of all Canadians.
We must work together to shed light on this dark chapter of our history. We must acknowledge it, learn from it and make sure that it never happens again. That is my commitment to indigenous Canadians. We must listen and learn, and above all, we must not remain silent when people ask for something as basic and human as simply knowing where their children were buried and being able to commemorate them with respect and dignity.
When I think of those 215 children, I think of the tremendous contributions they might have made had they not been robbed of their futures. I think of the beautiful families they could have raised, and the knowledge-keepers and remarkable Canadians they could have become.
We owe it to each and every one of them to redouble our efforts today toward reconciliation and healing.
View Jaime Battiste Profile
Lib. (NS)
View Jaime Battiste Profile
2021-06-01 18:52 [p.7783]
Mr. Chair, I noticed the member mentioned he would like to see us accelerate the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action 71 through 76, but I am wondering about number 57, which is the recommendation on UNDRIP.
Will he ask Conservative senators to support Bill C-15 and do what he can to help us ensure that all indigenous people are guaranteed equal human rights, as every other Canadian is?
View Erin O'Toole Profile
CPC (ON)
View Erin O'Toole Profile
2021-06-01 18:53 [p.7784]
Mr. Chair, the member knows, or likely should know, that that is guaranteed in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which predates UNDRIP. It is an important document that was started by a former Conservative member of Parliament.
I think all parliamentarians share our commitment to reconciliation, but what we have to do is make sure it is more than just important words, lowering of flags or gestures. These are important in healing, but it is more important to address the underlying unfairness, give certainty to the families, and give the ability, as Roseann and her family had, to heal.
I would ask that member to work with us to move swiftly on calls to action 71 to 76 by Canada Day. Let us have a plan to deliver the true potential of this great country for all Canadians.
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