No place in Parliament for Beyak’s hateful views
In kicking Senator Lynn Beyak out of the Conservative caucus last week, Andrew Scheer finally did the right thing. It was not a swift decision, nor necessarily made for the right reasons. But Beyak’s ouster is nevertheless an encouraging signal that, whether for moral reasons or more crassly political ones, for this moment, Canada’s political leaders are rejecting at least the rhetoric of anti-Indigenous racism.
The movement to have Beyak removed from the Conservative caucus began last March, when the senator, then a member of the Aboriginal peoples committee, delivered an ignorant and muddled speech making the case that the upside of residential schools is unfairly overshadowed by all the negative press about, you know, cultural genocide.
There was plenty to love about the schools, according to the senator. “Nobody meant to hurt anybody, the little smiles in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission are real, the clothes are clean and the meals are good,” she said. “There were many people who came from residential schools with good training and good language skills, and, of course, there were the atrocities as well.” Close call: on the one hand, clean clothes; on the other, “the atrocities.”
Amid the controversy that followed, Beyak refused to repent, insisting she had said nothing wrong and that there were no lessons to be drawn. Citing a friendship with an “aboriginal fellow,” Beyak coined the perfect anti-reconciliation slogan: “I don’t need any more education.”
Then-interim leader Rona Ambrose did turf her from the committee, and a few months later, after another spate of hateful comments, the Conservative caucus in the Upper House removed Beyak from all of her other committees. Yet it wasn’t until last week, after some 10 months of the senator’s doubling down, that her party’s leadership finally decided she was unfit for caucus.
The final straw seems to have been an article in the Walrus magazine calling attention to more than 100 letters posted on Beyak’s website in support of her speech on residential schools. One of these suggested that Indigenous people “should be very grateful for the residential schools.” Another characterized First Nations as “a culture that will sit and wait until the government gives them stuff.”
On Thursday, after Beyak refused to remove the offending comments, Scheer issued a statement denouncing the senator’s tacit endorsement of the “racist” letters and declaring that “racism will not be tolerated in the Conservativee caucus.”
This was a welcome and overdue move, but we needn’t rush to applaud Scheer. Garnet Angeconeb, a residential school survivor and recipient of the Order of Canada, says he tried to alert the leader’s office to the letters months ago, but was ignored. In any case, Beyak has been entirely consistent on this issue. The letters should have come as no surprise.
What the decision does suggest, however, is that the Conservatives have determined, in the wake of their failed last election campaign, that flirtation with fear and division is not the right direction. Whether that’s a principled stand or a political calculation, it’s good for Canada.
The question now regarding Beyak is whether further action is possible or desirable. New Democrat MP Charlie Angus has called on the prime minister to pressure the Senate to use all of the tools at its disposal to remove Beyak from office. Perry Bellegarde, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, meanwhile, has called for a Senate ethics inquiry into Beyak’s actions.
Clearly Beyak should not be allowed to use the platform of her parliamentary position to advance her ignorant and insensitive views on Indigenous peoples. Now that she has no caucus, sits on no committees and her powers have been rightly constrained, she might consider whether she really wants the institution she serves to be brought into further disrepute by her unholy crusade. Despite what she thinks, no one is looking to infringe on her speech rights. But if she insists on continuing to peddle her vile views, she could save everyone a lot of grief by doing so as a private citizen.
“I don’t need any more education.”