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Why Does Senator Who Called Residential Schools ‘Well Intentioned’ Still Have A Job?

CazTGG

Member
A good summary of one of the Canadian senate's most infamous faces and their immensely ignorant statements: http://www.chatelaine.com/opinion/lynn-beyak-senator/

Beyak — a business owner from northern Ontario who ran twice as a candidate for the provincial Progressive Conservatives in the 1990s — wrote this letter after a summer she promised would be spent meeting with Indigenous groups, as a way to address uninformed and offensive statements she made about residential schools earlier this year. But this is the sentiment that emerged from Beyak's soul-searching: ”Trade your status card for a Canadian citizenship," she advised Aboriginal people. Beyak — a senator, remember — had to be told that Aboriginal people born in Canada are citizens, and that having Indian status does not preclude a person from being Canadian.

So, another serious question: Is it possible that Beyak is getting dumber over time? Back in the spring, she criticized the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's inquiry into the residential school system — which seized 150,000 Indigenous children from their families as part of a government campaign of forcible assimilation — as being unfair, because it didn't ”focus on the good."

”I speak partly for the record," Beyak said in March, ”but mostly in memory of the kindly and well-intentioned men and women and their descendants — perhaps some of us here in this chamber — whose remarkable works, good deeds and historical tales in the residential schools go unacknowledged for the most part."

My grandfather was taken away from his family to attend a residential school. He later fled the country and joined the US military to gain citizenship. He was later captured and tortured as a POW in Korea. And then years down the line the ravages of PTSD led him to commit suicide.

But yeah these programs did some good things as well. My mother and her siblings deserve more than a half assed apology from the Canadian government.
 
Andrew Scheer refuses to remove Lynn Beyak from caucus until she says something he doesn’t secretly agree with

OTTAWA – Under pressure to remove controversial Senator Lynn Beyak from the Conservative Caucus, leader of the opposition Andrew Scheer has promised to do so the second Beyak says something he doesn’t believe deep down inside.

“Obviously I publicly condemn Ms. Beyak’s comments that indigenous Canadians need to give up their status,” said Scheer. “But I also privately agree that indigenous Canadians need to give up their status.”

“The simple fact is, it would be wrong to remove Ms. Beyak just for exercising her right to say what my caucus is thinking.”

Satirical, but 100% accurate.
 
I remember reading some where that short of murder/treason and or massive public outcry, it's damn near impossible for Senators to get fired.
 

CazTGG

Member
I remember reading some where that short of murder/treason and or massive public outcry, it's damn near impossible for Senators to get fired.

It's possible to remove a senator from the senate...but it's complicated and relies on an old rule in the Canadian Constitution that's rarely been exercised.

My grandfather was taken away from his family to attend a residential school. He later fled the country and joined the US military to gain citizenship. He was later captured and tortured as a POW in Korea. And then years down the line the ravages of PTSD led him to commit suicide.

But yeah these programs did some good things as well. My mother and her siblings deserve more than a half assed apology from the Canadian government.

That's horrible. I'm adding this to the OP, if that's alright with you.
 
My grandfather was taken away from his family to attend a residential school. He later fled the country and joined the US military to gain citizenship. He was later captured and tortured as a POW in Korea. And then years down the line the ravages of PTSD led him to commit suicide.

But yeah these programs did some good things as well. My mother and her siblings deserve more than a half assed apology from the Canadian government.
 

Moppeh

Banned
My grandfather was taken away from his family to attend a residential school. He later fled the country and joined the US military to gain citizenship. He was later captured and tortured as a POW in Korea. And then years down the line the ravages of PTSD led him to commit suicide.

But yeah these programs did some good things as well. My mother and her siblings deserve more than a half assed apology from the Canadian government.

Fuck, that's terrible. I'm sorry to hear that. :(

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Beyak is a fucking disgrace. We should confront and discuss our past but it shouldn't be like this. Her attempts to put a positive spin on residential schools are so fucked up.
 
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