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[CazTGG]

A few weeks ago, Canadian senator Lynn Beyak defended residential schools (see this thread for more details). This was one of the two major controversies surrounding the Canadian senate this March along with the revelation that senator Don Meredith having a sexual relationship with a teenager and refusing to resign over said revelation. Today, Senator Lynn Beyak decided to double down on her previous remarks: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/senator-lynn-beyak-suffered-residential-schools-1.4042627

Senator Lynn Beyak says she doesn't need any more education about the horrors of the residential school system because she "suffered" alongside Indigenous people who were sent to the institutions.

The Conservative senator from northwestern Ontario reiterated her defence of the schools in an interview with CBC News on Monday.

"I made my statements, and I stand by them," she said. "I think, if you go across Canada, there are shining examples from sea to sea of people who owe their lives to the schools," she said, while acknowledging that the bad parts of the schools were "horrific."

"I've suffered with them up there. I appreciate their suffering more than they'll ever know," she said. "The best way to heal is to move forward together. Not to blame, not to point fingers, not to live in the past."

Write it on a white paper if old.

 

[Simon Belmont]

For a guy who was so obsessed with the Senate, Harper did such a shit job appointing people.

 

[CazTGG]

For a guy who was so obsessed with the Senate, Harper did such a shit job at everything.

Fixed.

 

[djkimothy]

Yah, i just read that article. She just needs to shut the fuck up and sit down, it's sickening to think she gets tenure and a six figure salary paid by the tax payer.

 

[capitalCORN]

You probably gotta take a lotta good licks of the stupid stick to be an official party member.

 

[the1npc]

Wow what an idiot. And to think she probably makes 200K

 

[Pancake Mix]

Why is she so insistent on making it seem like those schools were not that bad? No one else seems to. It's generally seen as a black mark on Canadian history.

 

[LiveFromKyoto]

Why is she so insistent on making it seem like those schools were not that bad? No one else seems to. It's generally seen as a black mark on Canadian history.

Not everyone can handle white guilt.

 

[Pancake Mix]

Not everyone can handle white guilt.

Well, nobody's responsible for the sins of the father, but she could stop defending residential schools when there's a mountain of evidence against her. That would be refreshing.

 

[capitalCORN]

Well, nobody's responsible for the sins of the father, but she could stop defending residential schools when there's a mountain of evidence against her. That would be refreshing.

You gotta realize at this point she rationalized doubling down was worth more than a formal apology. It's the conservative way!

 

[CazTGG]

Not everyone can handle white guilt.

Maybe she shouldn't be involved in the senate's Aboriginal Peoples Committee if she can't handle "the white guilt"?

 

[CazTGG]

Excuse the double post:

Beyak has a new aide with her today, who made it clear she won't be speaking to media. Beyak added she stood by comments from yesterday

 

[WrenchNinja]

Remind me why we still have the Senate

 

[somesayyea]

this woman is an idiot

 

[gabbo]

Remind me why we still have the Senate

To prevent tryanny of the majority in the HOC/walk back bad legislation. And she proves senators can be independent of party because she's clearly on her own here. She and Meredith need to go though. At least get her off the Aboriginal Peoples committee.

The senate needs to find some obscure rule to slap her down with.

 

[CazTGG]

Update: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/lynn-beyak-residential-school-survivors-1.4046329

After hearing testimony about the atrocities committed in residential schools, Senator Lynn Beyak asked survivors at the Senate's Aboriginal peoples committee Wednesday what they thought about her plan for a national audit on all First Nations spending.

Beyak asked John Morrisseau and Doris Young, two elderly Indigenous people who faced abuse in school, if they thought it was appropriate to be spending money on renaming buildings, like Ottawa's Langevin Block, named after one of the architects of the residential schools, when there are children on reserve without clean drinking water.

"The speech that caused so much hurt and distress was actually a speech about taxes," Beyak said of the remarks she delivered in the Red Chamber when she defended the institutions as well-intentioned.

In fact, little of her initial speech was devoted to the subject of taxes, but rather a recounting of the "good deeds" committed by religous teachers who "didn't mean to hurt anybody."

(According to the official Hansard transcript of her speech in the Senate, Beyak said the word "tax" or "taxpayer" only twice in a nearly 20-minute speech. The full text of her remarks is available here.)

She needs to resign. Immediately.

 

[Windam]

Update: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/lynn-beyak-residential-school-survivors-1.4046329



She needs to resign. Immediately.

We know she won't. And not enough people will care.