Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands)
2021-06-01 20:44 [p.7798]

Madam Chair, to my hon. colleague and parliamentary secretary, it is a hard thing to acknowledge as settler culture Canadians that our entire society has been built on dispossessing indigenous peoples of their lands. The residential school system was part of the institutionalized racism and genocide to break down the culture, the societies and civilizations that were here before European settlers.

I am wondering if the hon. member would return to the question, and I know it is a tough question, that was just asked by the member for Vancouver East. Can we admit that we are the beneficiaries of a genocide?

Pam Damoff (Oakville North—Burlington)
2021-06-01 20:44 [p.7798]

Madam Chair, when we think about how our country was founded, we see it was founded on racism, and it was founded on colonialism. As a result, indigenous peoples not only had to deal with this 150 years ago but also continue to deal with it today. We see systemic racism in policing. We see systemic racism in our health care system in Canada. Often we look south of the border and seem to think that we are better than people who live in the United States, and we are not.

The racism and colonialism that continues to exist in Canada is unacceptable. All Canadians have to take responsibility for that, and all of us have to take action to make sure that we end the racism and colonialism that continues to exist today.

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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.

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