Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands)
2021-06-01 22:09 [p.7810]

Mr. Speaker, I begin by acknowledging that I am on the territory of W_SÁNEC people and I speak in SENCOTEN and raise my hands to you.
[Member spoke in SENCOTEN]

[English]

I particularly raise my hands today to one of my dearest friends, a constituent who is also my MLA. I am not using my words tonight. I am using his words. Adam Olsen is a member of Tsartlip First Nation. He spoke these words yesterday in the British Columbia legislature:
We know that if these children were not indigenous but rather European that we would not have been slow to act…. Deep down, we know that in our society it’s just a fact…. Some children matter less.

We know underneath the shiny, happy facade of Canada…there lurks a grotesque and shameful past. For 30 years, my relatives have been sharing their experiences from these despicable institutions. For 30 years, their stories have been hushed. Our relatives have been told that [Canada and] Canadians…don’t want to hear their stories. They have been told to stop lying. They’ve been told to stop embellishing.

There was a statement from this institution that noted the unimaginable proportions of this tragedy. This is an incredibly unfortunate characterization of the situation that we carry. For Indigenous People, the story is not shocking, nor is it unimaginable. This is the trauma our families have carried for generations….

As we continue to grapple with missing and murdered indigenous women and children, hanging red dresses in recognition of our current reality, what is uncovered in Kamloops [reminds us] that this storyline is not new. It has been in the imagination—indeed in the nightmares—of our relatives for the past 130 years. It is the terror that our ancestors have lived with.

The only reason to call it unimaginable would be because these institutions, these Crown governments…and the people that populated these chambers in the past either haven’t been listening to our stories or they’ve cared less. It is a reality in our country that some children have mattered less. These are both terrible considerations.

There is nothing to imagine for those who have been paying attention. Our Elders and our families have been sharing the grim details of their experiences in residential schools for decades. That is the record of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

You don’t have to imagine it. You just have to believe it and care enough to act with the urgency that you would if it was your child that didn’t return home from school. It’s your kids going to school, not coming home, not being there when their parents are there to pick them up….

Duncan Campbell Scott, deputy superintendent of Indian Affairs from 1913 to 1932, is often associated with saying, “Kill the Indian, save the man”….
Residential schools were a critical tool in the process of “kill the Indian,” in Scott’s words. Deliberately breaking up families by forcing children to residential schools was a tool to expedite the process of dispossessing Indigenous Peoples of their lands and resources….

There have always been stories in our families of our relatives that didn’t come home, the children that died and were buried there with little or no notification to the families….

I wish I could say that indigenous children are no longer forcibly removed from their communities. However, I can’t. I wish I could say that indigenous people were not dramatically overrepresented in fatalities at the hands of police, the criminal justice system, homelessness, suicide, addictions and drug poisoning, all statistics you don’t want to be overrepresented in….

We must stop referring to what we know like we didn’t know it. We must stop pretending it was better than it was. We must stop acting like we came by this wealth through honest means because we did not. This land and the resources this Crown government depends on came from the dispossession of indigenous people. For decades, this provincial government [and I will insert federal] has benefited from the lands and resources that were secured through residential schools and other disgraceful policies.

I’m so grateful for the incredible public response to this tragedy facing our relatives in Kamloops and the Interior. I’m grateful for the demands from our family and friends and neighbours…ensuring government responds as if it were our child that didn’t come home from school.

This is indeed a heavy burden, but it’s one we can all make lighter if we carry it together. HÍSW_?E SIÁM.

The post MLA Adam Olsen’s speech following discovery of children’s remains at former residential school appeared first on Elizabeth May.

Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands)
2021-05-31 12:51 [p.7606]

Madam Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague from Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke for his championing of the rights of the LGBTQ+ two-spirit community. I am horrified as he shares with us the abuse he has experienced for standing up for trans rights.

The only problem I have with Bill C-6 is why we call a practice that is clearly torture something called “ therapy”. Is it not time to stop calling residential schools “schools” and call them what they were? Is it not time to call what is called “ conversion therapy” abuse and torture?

Randall Garrison (Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke)
2021-05-31 12:52 [p.7606]

Madam Speaker, I could not agree with the member more. I thank her, since I ran out of time in my speech, for drawing the parallel to what happened at residential schools. I, of course, share the horror and the need for us to act resolutely on the news that we heard from Kamloops this week.

All the professional studies show that conversion therapy results in depression, self-harm, suicide attempts and many actual deaths by suicide. There is no science behind this practice, there is no reason to continue to call it therapy and that is one of the reasons it should be banned.

The post Conversion “therapy” should not be called therapy appeared first on Elizabeth May.

Which brings me to the latest outrage.  When land protectors at Caycuse or Fairy Creek are practicing, safe, peaceful and COVID-precautions in the protests, the Mounties are not.

Reports from people arrested are worrying. The paddy wagons are over-crowded. Now, maybe the RCMP Establishment thinks that if you violate a private injunction in the interest of destroying the last of British Columbia’s old growth forest, you are no longer entitled to the public health precautions dictated by the same government that has decided you should face arrest.   My friend Linda’s son Chris was arrested without his being aware he was in any zone where an arrest was legal.  The arrests were random. He was not in an area described in the court ordered injunction “no go” zone. As far as he knew, he was not even in one of the RCMP fake “exclusion zones.”  He had joined a large group of land protectors, sitting at distance, singing, and unaware they were in a place that would result in arrest. They had passed a small group of RCMP officers on the road before they reached a spot where they set themselves down.  Then a much larger group of RCMP officers showed up and moved them back into more crowded spacing.  An supervising officer then stood amongst them and randomly pointed.  Arrest him. Arrest her…  Chris was one of those singled out and arrested. He has no idea why he was singled out. It had every appearance of being random.  His phone and backpack were taken from him and he was placed in a paddy wagon with others, with no COVID distancing.  He was wearing his mask. Others were not.

Maybe a mass of public opinion believes that an arrested, non-violent, defender of the irreplaceable ancient giants of our forests deserves to be exposed to COVID. But I doubt it. The RCMP need to be called out on this. And much more.

As I see it the RCMP are the law breakers here.  The treatment of journalists trying to document arrests violates the Charter and its protections of freedom on the press.  There is no court order justifying arrests of media – nor could there be. Yet the RCMP, in many well documents incidents, have threatened reporters with arrests – without any legal justification. This practice has been increasing as it was used in keeping reporters away from the arrests of Wet’suwe’ten Hereditary chiefs.

As well, the RCMP have been arresting, without legal justification, many members of the public. Worse, they have arrested indigenous peoples with constitutionally protected rights to be on their own territory, now further protected by UNDRIP laws, in place provincially, being developed federally and in place globally.   There is no court order in support of the RCMP-created “exclusion zones.”

Those arrested have also had their cars towed. Some have been roughed up.  This especially seems to be the case for indigenous youth.

Many friends and colleagues are considering making their way to Fairy Creek and the Upper Walbran to protect what is left. I am inspired that my old friend Tzeporah Berman is “back to the barricades.” https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-back-to-the-blockades-why-i-continue-to-fight-for-british-columbias/

We first met in Clayoquot Summer of 1993.  More accurately we met when the Sierra Club of Canada project the Clayoquot Express arrived in Tofino following a cross-country trek by rail – reaching the Peace Camp in the in-coming chill of winter in November 1993.  I am considering being arrested there too.

Part of my reasoning is my growing panic that the last chance for our biosphere is running out – like sand between my fingers. And part of the reason for that anxiety is the back-room deal between the Liberals and NDP to push through Bill C-12 – the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act – without any real improvements.  The shenanigans have been outrageous, but media is not watching what goes on in committee. Some reporters have dutifully reported the Liberal-NDP spin (sadly echoed by some climate groups) that major improvements are being made. Please show me one.

I have included some clips from the week of May 24 when the bill was before committee.  The amount of time for witnesses from the public was less than 8 hours over three days of hearing.  Most of the dozens of briefs submitted came after the hearings were over – as was the deadline for submitting amendments. As I wrote last week, as the last panel of witnesses was dismissed, we were told all amendments were due the next day.

Thanks to Conservative MP Dan Albas giving me his first six minutes,  I questioned the Minister of Environment about Bill C-12 at committee, listing the keys areas where the bill needs to be made stronger to keep global average temperature increase to 1.5 degrees C. And soon after that, I was able to question Environment Canada and Climate Change Assistant Deputy Minister, an old friend from his environmental policy days, John Moffat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ttb-Mtw7qRo

It was during Monday’s clause by clause committee meeting that I realized the fix was in.  In the normal course of most clause by clause reviews of legislation, a few of my amendments will be accepted – regardless of the subject area. But it became increasingly clear that there was a pact between Liberals and the NDP to defeat every Green amendment – even when my amendment was word for word identical to a Liberal amendment they wanted to pass.  The wording in question had been recommended by West Coast Environmental Law to ensure that next target is set, not five, but 10 years ahead.

How the Lib-NDP alliance was so unaware of the logic of legislative review that they failed to realize that defeating the wording they wanted as a Green amendment would preclude voting for the same language later as a Liberal amendment, is beyond me.  In fact, the chair of the committee had warned them, in routine fashion, that if the Green amendment failed then the identical Liberal amendment cannot be moved.  Only Bloc MP Monique Pauzé voted for my amendment.  And when the chair intoned, without any suggestion that he knew his ruling would create an eruption of howls of protest, that the Liberal motion could not be moved, I think we lost a good half hour to the ensuing chaos.  It was bizarre. It would have been funny, but for the importance of any improvement to this weak act.

Liberal MP Yvan Baker, whose amendment was identical to mine, suggested it could be moved once amended from ten years to 3650 days. The clerk said that wouldn’t work because that was still ten years. Then NDP MP Taylor Bachrach, replacing Laurel Collins who is on mat leave, came up with “nine years and 366 days.”  That was ruled to be sufficiently different from the Green amendment they had just voted down.  It was obvious to me then that any amendment from the Greens was going to be killed for no higher principle than that it was Green.

I give more detail here in this piece in the National Observer (please post and share as much as possible before the committee resumes at 3:30 EST tomorrow.): https://www.nationalobserver.com/2021/05/28/opinion/climate-emergency-weak-climate-change-act-being-steamrolled-through-parliament

It would take a miracle to get C-12 to be remotely consistent with the other strong climate laws around the world through this committee.  Clearly, Wilkinson – and his political higher ups, do not want a climate accountability. They want the appearance of climate accountability. I predict it will be rushed through the House.  But I do have hopes for the Senate to take the time needed to actually listen to evidence.  Still, it would be best if an uproar from citizens chastens the Liberals and NDP to actually insist on a stronger bill.

The other news this week that left us flattened, all of us, was the discovery of the remains of 215 little children – killed by the Government of Canada and the Catholic Church at the Kamloops Residential School. Unanimously, all parties agreed to fast track Bill C-5, moving through several stages of the bill in several hours. On behalf of Greens, Jenica Atwin gave an incredibly powerful and emotional speech.  I am so proud of her. https://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/sports/high-school/2.7227/mps-pass-bill-creating-national-day-for-truth-and-reconciliation-1.24324274

Hope you all have a happy Sunday and a warm welcome to June. Wish me luck tomorrow in clause by clause!

Love,

Elizabeth

P.S. In case you missed it, here is a recording of our wonderful 10^th anniversary party!  Featuring Annamie Paul, David Suzuki, David Coon, Mike Schreiner, Lorna Crozier, Pat Carney, Cate May Burton and Sylvia Olsen and many more!!!

Feel free to share it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLDQZXqJtEY&t=10s

Subscribe to Good Sunday Morning at the Saanich-Gulf Islands Greens:
http://www.sgigreenparty.ca/

The post Good Sunday Morning – May 30 appeared first on Elizabeth May.

OTTAWA – Today, the Green Party of Canada commemorates the thousands of Indigenous children who were sent away to residential schools in Canada. Orange Shirt Day is the legacy of the St. Joseph Mission (SJM) Residential School (1891 – 1981) Commemoration Project and Phyllis Webstad, who was sent to the Mission for one school year in 1973/1974, when she was only six years old. Ms. Webstad is Northern Secwpemc (Shuswap) from the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation (Canoe Creek Indian Band).

“The lasting impacts of this dark period of Canada’s history endures to this day for so many Indigenous people,” said Green Party Interim Leader Jo-Ann Roberts. “Families and communities that were torn apart then, still live with the consequences. As we seek a path towards reconciliation, this day reminds us to acknowledge what happened, to reflect on the suffering incurred, and to ensure that it may never happen again.”

Green parliamentary leader Elizabeth May (MP, Saanich-Gulf Islands) said: “The deep and abiding pain of the residential school system is not history. It is deeply felt on an inter-generational basis. As Greens, we strive to be good allies. We continue to press for the calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation process and the recommendations of the MMIWG Inquiry to be acted upon. One day a year is never enough in the quest for true reconciliation.”

Jenica Atwin, Green MP for Fredericton and caucus critic for Crown-Indigenous relations and Indigenous services concluded: “Orange shirt day is a critical day of action in recognition of the terrible tragedy of Indian residential Schools and their lasting legacy. Canada has a moral and fiduciary responsibility for reparations in the quest for justice and peace.

“In New Brunswick, I am proud of our public education system and our on-reserve schools for taking up the often painful challenge of residential school education and awareness. Across the province, children, parents, teachers and allies wear orange to honour survivors, the resiliency of their descendants and the thousands of innocent children lost. We must never forget and we must follow through with our promise to honour the calls to action from the truth and reconciliation commission of Canada, without further delay. Kiselomol Wassisok – (Love the children).”

# # #

For more information or to arrange an interview contact:

Rosie Emery

Press Secretary

613-562-4916×206

rosie.emery@greenparty.ca

The post Green Party honours Orange Shirt Day appeared first on Elizabeth May.

“This month’s First Nations Summit between Aboriginal leaders and the government of Canada is an excellent time for Prime Minister Harper to offer something concrete in terms of dollars and action to back up the apology he made in June 2008,” said Green Party Leader Elizabeth May.

“The Aboriginal leadership has asked that Prime Minister Stephen Harper come out of this month’s First Nations summit willing to forge a new relationship with Aboriginal people, and the Green Party supports that, but he also must be willing to offer something more than goodwill, considering he made the apology more than three years ago,” said May.

“The summit, which will be held in Ottawa on January 24th, is an important and pivotal moment in Canada’s history.  This government’s intentions must be made clear at that meeting.  The goodwill has to be demonstrated with action and money,” said Lorraine Rekmans, Aboriginal Affairs Critic for the Green Party of Canada.

On June 11, 2008, Prime Minister Harper stood before the House of Commons and offered his apology to former students of Indian residential schools and acknowledged that the treatment of children in those schools was a sad chapter in Canadian history.  For more than a century, Indian residential schools separated over 150,000 aboriginal children from their families and communities.

“He must follow up and address the harm that was done in destroying the family unit.  The repercussions of these historical separations in family continueto haunt us to this day.  Until he is willing to make reparation for the harm done, there can be no real healing.  Communities need actual programs and services to rebuild from this.  Families are still suffering from those effects caused by a governmental policy that separated families.  It must be government policy to support the healing and reunification of Aboriginal families,” said Rekmans

“There are a ton of issues that must be addressed, including abject poverty of families, lack of housing, lack of clean running water, lack of educational funding and exclusion from resource development opportunities.  No one expects that these will all be resolved in one day.  I call on the Prime Minister to commit to moving forward in partnership with Aboriginal leaders and commit to further open dialogue so that joint solutions can be realized.  I call on this Prime Minster to implement the Kelowna Accord as a gesture of his sincerity.  Otherwise his June 2008 apology will ring hollow,” said Rekmans.

The post Green Party Calls on Harper Government to make reparations for past harm and support family healing appeared first on Elizabeth May.