Apologies only first step on road to better relations

Larry Loyie and Lynn Thompson feel differently about the words spoken in the apology by their home provinces’ premiers. But what they do agree on is that the words are only as strong as the actions that follow them.

On June 18, Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger apologized to families impacted by the Sixties Scoop and became the first province to issue such an acknowledgement.

“Today, as premier, I would like to apologize on behalf of the Province of Manitoba for the Sixties Scoop,” he said. “It was a practice that has left intergenerational scars and cultural loss. With these words of apology and regret, I hope all Canadians will join me in recognizing this historic injustice. I hope they will join me in acknowledging the pain and suffering of the thousands of children who were taken from their homes.”

Her two sisters and Thompson, at age three, were taken from their home on the Pine Creek First Nation in Manitoba. What ensued for Thompson were 25 foster homes in Ontario and Manitoba by the time she was eight years old and two failed adoption attempts. Eventually, she settled in a German Mennonite community in Manitoba.

On June 22, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley became the first provincial leader to issue an apology to residential school survivors. In a moving statement read at the Alberta Legislature, with First Nations leaders and members sitting in the gallery, Notley said, “As our first step, we want the First Nation, Métis and Inuit people of Alberta to know that we deeply regret the profound harm and damage that occurred to generations of children forced to attend residential schools. Although the Province of Alberta did not establish this system, members of this Chamber did not take a stand against it. For this silence, we apologize.”

Loyie is an Indian residential school survivor. He was taken at the age of nine to attend St. Bernard residential school in Grouard, Alta., where he stayed for six years. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has identified 12,000 survivors in Alberta, which was home to 25 residential schools.

Thompson says Selinger’s actions are a “good step forward. I was pleased with it. We didn’t even have to have an inquiry for him to apologize.”

But Loyie isn’t as accepting of Notley’s words.

“(The apology) means nothing to me if it’s coming from a person I don’t know, a politician, who thinks she’s doing something good and in fact is not doing anything good if she doesn’t move on something that could rectify what we, as children, went through,” he said.

Although they were in different situations, Thompson and Loyie both experienced abuse and loneliness, and were stripped of their culture and language.

It is estimated that 20,000 children were apprehended in the 1960s through to the 1980s. The “Sixties Scoop,” as this became known by because the majority of children were taken in the first decade, was a government-sanctioned program entitled Adopt Indian/Metis children. Aboriginal children were placed in foster homes throughout Canada and the United States. Seventy per cent of those children were put in non-Aboriginal homes.

Indian residential schools operated for 130 years with 150,000 Aboriginal children spanning seven generations taken from their homes. Indian residential schools were the focus of the six years’ worth of work undertaken by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The TRC was part of a broader settlement agreement that came about through a court ruling.

Sixties Scoop children are pursuing court action. Thompson is one of two women named in a class action lawsuit against the federal government launched in 2011 in the Court of Queen’s Bench in Regina. Court action filed in Ontario was certified this June as a class action.

As a follow-up to Selinger’s apology, Grand Chief David Harper of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak is pushing for the formation of a commission, while Manitoba Métis Federation President David Chartrand wants to see a plan put in place to reunite families.

In Saskatchewan, Premier Brad Wall says his government is working toward delivering a formal apology to ‘Sixties Scoop survivors.

Thompson, who has lived in Saskatchewan for close to 15 years, is pleased with the announcement. But she would also like to see financial compensation for survivors, something Wall says will not be happening.

In Alberta, chiefs have responded favourably to Notley’s apology.

“I was very moved and touched by the words the premier made. I spent nine years in residential school and I know what it is to be in residential school. And I experienced all the abuse that you can think of and I was a survivor,” said Siksika Nation Chief Vincent Yellow Old Woman, who was in attendance for the apology.

Notley’s apology was followed a few days later by an announcement that the province was partnering with the Siksika Nation and the Alberta First Nations-owned Indian Business Corp. to make $2.7 million available to Siksika Nation members to create and develop business opportunities. The province is contributing $700,000.

“We’re living in times that we need to work together,” said Yellow Old Woman.