Meet Senator Patti LaBoucane-Benson
Before Senator Patti LaBoucane-Benson became a parliamentarian, she was an academic with a novel idea.
She wanted to transform her PhD dissertation, focused on trauma-healing programs for Indigenous offenders, into a graphic novel.
It was an unusual book pitch for an academic. But she teamed up with illustrator Kelly Mellings and House of Anansi Press to publish The Outside Circle, a powerful illustrative page-turner about two gang-affiliated Indigenous brothers healing from generations of historic trauma.
It became an award-winning bestseller and was recently included in the first graphic novel collection at Cambridge University’s Lucy Cavendish College in England.
Senator LaBoucane-Benson sat down with SenCAplus to talk about her graphic novel, her Senate work and her Métis-Ukrainian upbringing.
You were appointed to the Senate in 2018, but you weren’t the first person in your family to be offered a seat in the Red Chamber. Can you share that story?
My grandmother, Grace LaBoucane, was close with John Diefenbaker and very involved in his campaign for prime minister. He offered her a Senate seat, but this was long before the internet, cellphones or any of the tools senators now use to stay connected back home. My grandmother owned a business with her husband, and they had a child, my dad. It was very difficult to leave Alberta, so she declined the Senate appointment. I heard that story when I was 19 years old. At that point I thought, “I would really like to be a senator.” I didn’t really know what a senator was or did, but it was the first time I thought that this might be worth pursuing.
I was appointed to the Senate in 2018 and that day, I thought a lot about my grandmother. What I would give for one week to talk with her about politics and listen to her advice.
It sounds like you were close with your grandmother.
I was. My brother, sister and I were her only grandkids, and we grew up across the street from her. My other grandparents lived two blocks away. We were lucky to grow up so close to them. They did a lot of the after-school care and shuttled us around. My brother was a hockey player, my sister and I figure-skated for many years and we were Ukrainian dancers. We were very busy.
The Outside Circle, an award-winning graphic novel by Senator Patti LaBoucane-Benson and illustrator Kelly Mellings, depicts two gang-affiliated Indigenous brothers healing from generations of historic trauma. (Photo credit: Office of Senator Patti LaBoucane-Benson)
You worked with the Native Counselling Services of Alberta (NCSA) for 23 years. During that time, you wrote your PhD dissertation on building Indigenous resilience to trauma, which served as a model for programs in Alberta’s corrections facilities and child welfare system. How have these experiences informed your work in the Senate?
It has helped me better understand the social and political challenges that Indigenous people face, and how we should address those challenges. It has also helped me understand the divide between Indigenous and mainstream Canada’s understandings of our history. At the end of my NCSA career, I focused on training non-Indigenous frontline service providers in corrections, policing and child welfare about our history, historic trauma and historic-trauma-informed service delivery. Indigenous people need to lead on building those services.
You also transformed your dissertation into an award-winning graphic novel, The Outside Circle. Why did you decide to use this medium to unpack Indigenous trauma and healing?
I have always loved comic books and graphic novels. I think they can reach people, especially young people, differently than textbooks or written fiction. Today we see more textbooks being turned into graphic novels, but back then it was an experiment. My dissertation committee was not big on the idea and even my husband rolled his eyes. But it worked out well and The Outside Circle is now used in classrooms.
I went to a small town in northern Alberta with Kelly Mellings, the illustrator of The Outside Circle, to speak with Grade 10 students about the book. Many of the boys in that class were Indigenous and classified as “resistant readers.” But when we got up there, the most difficult questions we had to answer were from that group of boys because they knew our characters better than I did.
I saw the power of the graphic novel and how it can impact people, not only intellectually, but emotionally and spiritually. I’m very grateful to Kelly and House of Anansi Press for helping me to take this boring, dry PhD and transforming it into something that people can read.
In January 2020, you were named the Government Liaison in the Senate. What does it mean to you to be the first Indigenous woman to hold this position in the Upper Chamber?
It’s very humbling to be named and acknowledged as the first. But at the end of the day, it will only matter when it’s normal and expected that Indigenous people take up leadership positions in the Senate. It’s a step in the right direction of many steps that we need to take.
It’s an honour to be in the Government Representative Office. Senators Marc Gold and Raymonde Gagné are fantastic. I’m very lucky to be on this team.
What do you think are the biggest public policy issues facing Canada today?
Inflation and its effect on people living in poverty.
Why should more Canadians care about what happens in the Senate?
At a time when politics seems more polarized and less collaborative than ever, I believe the Senate has the capacity to turn down the temperature on important issues. Our committees are less partisan, usually less political and we have the capacity to undertake more thoughtful studies of bills and issues that are important to Canadians.
What legislative or committee work are you most proud of participating in to date?
I’ve had the opportunity to sponsor two bills that have gone through the Senate Committee on Indigenous Peoples (APPA) — Bill C-92, which was about Indigenous child welfare, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) bill, Bill C-15, in the last Parliament. The work of the APPA committee was stellar. There’s a lot of collegiality and collaboration in that committee. I’m very proud of that work.
What is one thing most Canadians might not know about you?
I’m an avid gardener and my husband is a traditional hunter. Otherwise, all I do is work and play with my dogs, Dante and Ryder.
What is a hidden gem in your region that more Canadians need to know about?
Métis Crossing in Alberta. They have a huge ballroom that has been used for weddings. In the wintertime, you can snowshoe around the big, beautiful property.
Alberta has done a lot of work in the Indigenous tourism sector, with support from the federal and provincial governments. You can travel around Alberta and visit interpretative centres managed by Blackfoot, Cree, Métis and Stoney people. It’s an economic boost for those Nations.
You have said that your perspectives are rooted in Cree ceremony and teachings. Can you elaborate on how these traditions have guided your work?
I think the Cree teachings of interconnectedness are as important in the Senate as they are at the Sun Dance. In life, as in Senate work, it’s all about relationships. Individual senators cannot accomplish much in the Chamber without good, respectful, collegial relationships with their colleagues. The Cree teachings have a lot to say about how we conduct ourselves in relationships. Everything I’ve learned in ceremony applies to the Senate.
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Meet Senator Patti LaBoucane-Benson
Before Senator Patti LaBoucane-Benson became a parliamentarian, she was an academic with a novel idea.
She wanted to transform her PhD dissertation, focused on trauma-healing programs for Indigenous offenders, into a graphic novel.
It was an unusual book pitch for an academic. But she teamed up with illustrator Kelly Mellings and House of Anansi Press to publish The Outside Circle, a powerful illustrative page-turner about two gang-affiliated Indigenous brothers healing from generations of historic trauma.
It became an award-winning bestseller and was recently included in the first graphic novel collection at Cambridge University’s Lucy Cavendish College in England.
Senator LaBoucane-Benson sat down with SenCAplus to talk about her graphic novel, her Senate work and her Métis-Ukrainian upbringing.
You were appointed to the Senate in 2018, but you weren’t the first person in your family to be offered a seat in the Red Chamber. Can you share that story?
My grandmother, Grace LaBoucane, was close with John Diefenbaker and very involved in his campaign for prime minister. He offered her a Senate seat, but this was long before the internet, cellphones or any of the tools senators now use to stay connected back home. My grandmother owned a business with her husband, and they had a child, my dad. It was very difficult to leave Alberta, so she declined the Senate appointment. I heard that story when I was 19 years old. At that point I thought, “I would really like to be a senator.” I didn’t really know what a senator was or did, but it was the first time I thought that this might be worth pursuing.
I was appointed to the Senate in 2018 and that day, I thought a lot about my grandmother. What I would give for one week to talk with her about politics and listen to her advice.
It sounds like you were close with your grandmother.
I was. My brother, sister and I were her only grandkids, and we grew up across the street from her. My other grandparents lived two blocks away. We were lucky to grow up so close to them. They did a lot of the after-school care and shuttled us around. My brother was a hockey player, my sister and I figure-skated for many years and we were Ukrainian dancers. We were very busy.
The Outside Circle, an award-winning graphic novel by Senator Patti LaBoucane-Benson and illustrator Kelly Mellings, depicts two gang-affiliated Indigenous brothers healing from generations of historic trauma. (Photo credit: Office of Senator Patti LaBoucane-Benson)
You worked with the Native Counselling Services of Alberta (NCSA) for 23 years. During that time, you wrote your PhD dissertation on building Indigenous resilience to trauma, which served as a model for programs in Alberta’s corrections facilities and child welfare system. How have these experiences informed your work in the Senate?
It has helped me better understand the social and political challenges that Indigenous people face, and how we should address those challenges. It has also helped me understand the divide between Indigenous and mainstream Canada’s understandings of our history. At the end of my NCSA career, I focused on training non-Indigenous frontline service providers in corrections, policing and child welfare about our history, historic trauma and historic-trauma-informed service delivery. Indigenous people need to lead on building those services.
You also transformed your dissertation into an award-winning graphic novel, The Outside Circle. Why did you decide to use this medium to unpack Indigenous trauma and healing?
I have always loved comic books and graphic novels. I think they can reach people, especially young people, differently than textbooks or written fiction. Today we see more textbooks being turned into graphic novels, but back then it was an experiment. My dissertation committee was not big on the idea and even my husband rolled his eyes. But it worked out well and The Outside Circle is now used in classrooms.
I went to a small town in northern Alberta with Kelly Mellings, the illustrator of The Outside Circle, to speak with Grade 10 students about the book. Many of the boys in that class were Indigenous and classified as “resistant readers.” But when we got up there, the most difficult questions we had to answer were from that group of boys because they knew our characters better than I did.
I saw the power of the graphic novel and how it can impact people, not only intellectually, but emotionally and spiritually. I’m very grateful to Kelly and House of Anansi Press for helping me to take this boring, dry PhD and transforming it into something that people can read.
In January 2020, you were named the Government Liaison in the Senate. What does it mean to you to be the first Indigenous woman to hold this position in the Upper Chamber?
It’s very humbling to be named and acknowledged as the first. But at the end of the day, it will only matter when it’s normal and expected that Indigenous people take up leadership positions in the Senate. It’s a step in the right direction of many steps that we need to take.
It’s an honour to be in the Government Representative Office. Senators Marc Gold and Raymonde Gagné are fantastic. I’m very lucky to be on this team.
What do you think are the biggest public policy issues facing Canada today?
Inflation and its effect on people living in poverty.
Why should more Canadians care about what happens in the Senate?
At a time when politics seems more polarized and less collaborative than ever, I believe the Senate has the capacity to turn down the temperature on important issues. Our committees are less partisan, usually less political and we have the capacity to undertake more thoughtful studies of bills and issues that are important to Canadians.
What legislative or committee work are you most proud of participating in to date?
I’ve had the opportunity to sponsor two bills that have gone through the Senate Committee on Indigenous Peoples (APPA) — Bill C-92, which was about Indigenous child welfare, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) bill, Bill C-15, in the last Parliament. The work of the APPA committee was stellar. There’s a lot of collegiality and collaboration in that committee. I’m very proud of that work.
What is one thing most Canadians might not know about you?
I’m an avid gardener and my husband is a traditional hunter. Otherwise, all I do is work and play with my dogs, Dante and Ryder.
What is a hidden gem in your region that more Canadians need to know about?
Métis Crossing in Alberta. They have a huge ballroom that has been used for weddings. In the wintertime, you can snowshoe around the big, beautiful property.
Alberta has done a lot of work in the Indigenous tourism sector, with support from the federal and provincial governments. You can travel around Alberta and visit interpretative centres managed by Blackfoot, Cree, Métis and Stoney people. It’s an economic boost for those Nations.
You have said that your perspectives are rooted in Cree ceremony and teachings. Can you elaborate on how these traditions have guided your work?
I think the Cree teachings of interconnectedness are as important in the Senate as they are at the Sun Dance. In life, as in Senate work, it’s all about relationships. Individual senators cannot accomplish much in the Chamber without good, respectful, collegial relationships with their colleagues. The Cree teachings have a lot to say about how we conduct ourselves in relationships. Everything I’ve learned in ceremony applies to the Senate.