pursuant to notice of February 14, 2018, moved:

That the Senate Administration be instructed to remove the website of the Honourable Senator Beyak from any Senate server and cease to support any website for the senator until the process undertaken by the Senate Ethics Officer following a request to conduct an inquiry under the Ethics and Conflict of Interest Code for Senators in relation to the content of Senator Beyak’s website and her obligations under the Code is finally disposed of, either by the tabling of the Senate Ethics Officer’s preliminary determination letter or inquiry report, by a report of the Standing Committee on Ethics and Conflict of Interest for Senators, or by a decision of the Senate respecting the matter.

She said: Honourable senators, the intention of the motion before you is to sever all links between the Senate of Canada and the content of Senator Beyak’s personal website pending the outcome of the Senate Ethics Officer’s process relating to this site.

The request for investigation submitted by our colleagues to the Senate Ethics Officer raises serious concerns that Senator Beyak’s posting of comments widely considered to promote bigoted and racist views “reflect[s] adversely on the position of Senator or the institution of the Senate contrary,” to section 7.1 and 7.2 of the Ethics and Conflict of Interest Code for Senators.

Indigenous peoples and non-indigenous peoples alike, including our colleagues and members of the public, have informed us, clearly and in no uncertain terms, that the letters posted on Senator Beyak’s website are hurtful and intolerable, and many express concerns that encourage and reinforce racist and discriminatory attitudes.

Honourable senators, this is not a simple question of free speech. This is about the impact of harmful and discriminatory stereotypes regarding indigenous peoples appearing on a web site bearing the name of the Senate and the coat of arms of Canada. The ethics officer will determine whether Senate resources may be spent to advance the same stereotypes underlying abhorrent and appalling government policies such as those historically used to justify residential schools, to try to cast doubt on indigenous peoples’ lived experiences, of Canada’s racist and colonial past, a past that this country has only recently begun to acknowledge, frankly, and work to remedy.

As we await this decision, however, we must reflect on the harm being caused by allowing such information to continue to be circulated. We know that not all messages to Senator Beyak are displayed on the website. Those who disagree with her comments about residential schools have not made it to the website. Letters that are displayed include such message as:

I’m no anthropologist but it seems every opportunistic culture, subsist[e]nce hunter/gatherers[,] seeks to get what they can for no effort. There is always a clash between an industrial/ organized farming culture that values effort as opposed to a culture that will sit and wail until the government gives them stuff.

To fail to challenge the display of such attitudes and ideas on a Senate website is to leave the impression with many Canadians that the rest of us endorse such biased and misleading perspectives. With the events of this week surrounding the Stanley case, we have seen the consequence of individuals in our society receiving mixed messages from a government institution, Canada’s judicial system, messages that some receive as encouragement to be emboldened to hate and to hurt.

The acquittal by an all-white jury of Mr. Stanley for the killing of Colten Boushie, a young indigenous man, has occasioned a truly dangerous rise in racist vitriol targeting indigenous peoples, particularly on social media.

In Dr. Marie Wilson’s remarks to the Aboriginal Peoples Committee last night, she responded to the question of why things are getting worse, why this week we had an all-white jury acquit a white man for shooting an indigenous man in the back of the head as though this is the United States in the 1950s.

The views aired and therefore implicitly promoted on Senator Beyak’s website are important, powerful reasons why. When a senator openly allows First Nations people of this country to be disparaged and dehumanized, it gives licence for others to do the same. By not interfering with this, we perpetuate ignorance and intolerance and give permission to others to behave in the same manner. If we do nothing and allow this to continue, we are not merely part of the problem. I would argue that we are actively encouraging the same ideas and attitudes that created the problem in the first place.

This is not what this country, never mind this place, represents. Senator Beyak’s website reflects poorly on all of us in the Senate, and by extension all Canadians. We only need look south of the border to see the impact of giving licence to racists in America.

The stakes are incalculably high for the credibility of Canada’s commitment to the reconciliation process charted for us by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The same can be said for our credibility as senators, as representatives of the public, and particularly of minority groups.

In the words of our colleague, Senator Sinclair, speaking of those who continue to ask him why indigenous people don’t get over it, get over the residential school experience, I quote:

My answer has always been: Why can’t you always remember this? . . . We should never forget, even once they have learned from it, because it’s part of who we are. It’s not just a part of who we are as survivors and children of survivors and relatives of survivors, it’s part of who we are as a nation. And this nation must never forget what it once did to its most vulnerable people.

We don’t ask it of our Jewish colleagues that they or their families or communities forget the horrors of the Holocaust, and nor would we accept it if any one of us tried to blame those who lost their lives for their circumstances.

Colleagues, we have an opportunity to practise the “how” of reconciliation. To some it may seem like an insurmountable task, but with opportunity such as this unfortunate and embarrassing one provided to us we can take a step forward, an easy first step. In fact, we are obligated to do so not only because of our duty to all Canadians, but also because of our duty to uphold the duty of each other, of our offices, of ourselves. We can do better and we must do better.

In her open letter addressed to Senator Beyak, our colleague Senator McCallum reminded us that as senators we give voice to all Canadians. As senators, we have the privilege and the responsibility to ensure that freedom of speech does not generate hate, racism or anger against any persons. From my discussions with Senator McCallum, I’m aware that two weeks ago she sent a private letter to Senator Beyak in which she invited her to hear the perspectives of residential school survivors and publish all letters she had received on the subject and in response to her statements. We must be aware of the responsibility and the privilege that she speaks of and not allow it to be undermined.

Senator McCallum has identified for the Senate a duty, grounded in the principle of sober second thought, to lead a dialogue with and on behalf of Canada. This dialogue includes the art of listening, knowledge translation and expansion and compassion.

Colten Boushie’s family, present in this and the other place this week, also impressed upon us the importance of every Canadian making an active effort to fight discrimination against indigenous peoples. Jade Tootoosis Brown, Colten’s sister, has emphasized that the conversation:

. . . has to continue in the classroom, It has to continue at the dinner table. It has to continue at the workplace. It has to continue at the coffee shop.

It also has to continue in the Senate.

The consequences of our actions as senators are incredibly far-reaching. I was reminded of this when I visited students at Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School in Thunder Bay last month. Young indigenous students gave me letters they had written to Senator Beyak. They wanted to explain to her the stark difference between their and their families’ experiences and the views she expressed and others on her website have promoted. To read from one I quote:

. . . you only talked about the good parts of some peoples’ experience in the residential school, but are ignoring the bad experiences about residential schools. . . . Some died trying to escape and many children died at the residential schools. Some children in the residential schools were alone and scared. . . . An Elder of mine told me her story was terrible being in the residential school. . . . She also still has terrifying dreams of being in that place. She has scars on her body. Her culture was almost stolen. Her life has changed so much.

Dear colleagues, this is a school where an inquest into the deaths of seven children was just tabled in the last year. As I told those students, my life’s work has been about giving people second chances, about educating and re-educating, about challenging discriminatory and hurtful ideas, attitudes and actions, and also about promoting opportunities for those whose histories and life circumstances mean that they often start in a far less than equal position. But when those with power and privilege use their positions and resources in ways that oppress or diminish the lives and experience of others, I also consider it our duty to act and challenge such behaviour. In fact, I think not to do so is to be irresponsible.

The third principle outlined by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is that:

Reconciliation is a process of healing of relationships that requires public truth sharing, apology, and commemoration that acknowledge and redress past harms.

Yesterday Colten Boushie’s mother, Debbie Baptiste, reminded us that:

Our children should not live in fear. Our children should be able to walk this earth this freedom and not worry about being shot or coming up missing.

It is nearly one year since the views being promoted on Senator Beyak’s website were first questioned. I do not challenge the right of Senator Beyak or others to express their opinions, but I absolutely do challenge the promotion of such racist and discriminatory attitudes and ideas in my name. It is for these reasons that I move that the Senate administration be directed to remove the website from Senate servers pending the decision of the Ethics Commissioner vis-à-vis the allocation of Senate resources for the site.

Thank you. Meegwetch.