QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Indigenous Services—Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario
Sixties Scoop Survivors
November 24, 2022
Minister, this question is from my colleague Senator Mary Jane McCallum.
As the forgotten generation, Sixties Scoop survivors are still waiting for both acts of recognition and reconciliation from the federal government. Survivors were denied the right to share their stories as part of an independent assessment program. As there is no Sixties Scoop foundation, they have not received support for issues surrounding trauma, family reunification or language loss. The 60s Scoop Legacy of Canada has called repeatedly on the federal government to commission a national inquiry, but with no result.
Will the Liberal government commit to a Sixties Scoop national inquiry and provide reparations for those survivors today?
Thank you very much. I will have to defer the answer to my colleague Minister Miller, who is working actively in this space and is responsible for some of these decisions.
I am focused on preventing the next generation of Sixties Scoop. I will talk about the work we’re doing on child and family services reform through Bill C-92. I want to thank this place for helping to get that important landmark legislation through last term. It is coming to fruition, and it is exciting.
I was in Wabaseemoong six or eight months ago, signing the first agreement in Ontario with that community to regain control over their child and family services. It is that work that I think will prevent the need for future inquiries about yet another generation of children removed.
That is the transformational work that I am proud to be a part of — not just addressing the harms of the past, but looking toward the future and creating the legislative and funding frameworks that, quite frankly, we, as a country, need to decolonize. In fact, there are many colonial practices that still exist today, that are still determining the lives of Indigenous people and that are still doing so inequitably.
