QUESTION PERIOD — Crown-Indigenous Relations
Truth and Reconciliation Commission--Implementation of Calls to Action
June 28, 2021
Honourable senators, my question is also for the government leader in the Senate.
On Thursday, the Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan revealed that it had found an estimated 751 unmarked graves on the grounds of a former Indian residential school. This follows the announcement last month of the remains of 215 children at the site of a former residential school outside Kamloops, B.C. I know that all honourable senators join together to express our sympathies for the pain and sorrow being experienced by the survivors of Indian residential schools and for the families of the missing.
Leader, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action 71 to 76 deal specifically with missing children and burial information. What is your government’s comprehensive plan to implement these Calls to Action, and how quickly will you put them into place?
The Government of Canada and all Canadians mourn and deplore the most recent discovery in Cowessess of these unmarked graves.
This government continues to take steps to put into motion the Calls to Action, most recently with the passage of Bill C-15, which is a major step in that direction. As you know, the government has offered its support to Indigenous communities across this country, who can take the lead in discovering and determining the sites where others may be buried and their identities. The government has also, in very strong terms, called upon the Catholic Church to provide all documents and has urged it to do so in order for the facts to be revealed. As you know, Minister Bennett has met with representatives of the Catholic bishops to do the same. The government is working with Indigenous communities in this tragic circumstance to do all that it can to assist those communities in this regard.
Speaking of Minister Bennett, the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs and the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs have both called upon the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations to resign over a text message she sent to her colleague in the other place, former minister of justice Jody Wilson-Raybould.
The Prime Minister defended Minister Bennett and said that he knows her heart. However, as the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs said, “Now is not the time for promises to do better.” If Indigenous groups no longer have confidence in the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, why should the Prime Minister?
Minister Bennett apologized, and properly so, for the ill-advised text. Minister Bennett has also worked tirelessly and with great devotion to the cause for which she is responsible, and she will continue to do so as a member of this government.
