APOLOGIZING A FIRST STEP
With a prime minister famous for saying sorry, it is easy to dismiss the Alberta government’s formal apology Monday for a shameful stain in the province’s past as mere virtue signalling.
But Premier Rachel Notley rightly followed the lead of Manitoba two years ago in apologizing to Alberta’s Aboriginal people who were ripped from their homes between the 1950s and the 1980s to be raised by white families and foster parents in the Sixties Scoop. An estimated 20,000 children were seized, separated from their biological parents, customs and identity.
“It hurts just to imagine the heartbreak experienced by these families, along with the loss of language, culture and sense of belonging,” Notley said. “Survivors can never replace what was taken, and I am sorry. We must acknowledge these wrongs and the toll they have taken, and thank survivors for their courage in speaking up.”
The apology helps turn hurt to healing. As Adam North Peigan, seized as a child and moved between six foster homes and two shelters, says, acknowledging past injustice will help in reconciliation.
“This apology means a lot, not only to survivors, but to Albertans in general as well because it’s an opportunity to create public awareness on the history and legacy of the Sixties Scoop,” he said.
But some survivors also rightly note words without followup action and financial support are meaningless. “An apology, fine. What are you going to do for the people?” Scoop survivor Donald Morin asked in an interview.
Three years ago, Notley also apologized for Alberta’s past inaction in allowing Aboriginal children to be torn from their homes to go to federal residential schools, another painful chapter in history that left deep and lasting trauma.
Details were scarce on what actions will accompany the words to alleviate the broader social problems that continue to disproportionately affect Indigenous Albertans.
As Notley was issuing her apology, provincial crisis mental health teams were dispatched to Indigenous communities in Cadotte Lake and Little Buffalo after two teenagers died by their own hands and two more youths were hospitalized after suicide attempts.
As of this week, 11 Alberta First Nations live under boil-water advisories and a recent report card on the Canadian justice system released by the independent MacDonald-Laurier Institute showed Alberta had the most disproportionate level of incarceration for First Nations and Métis people of any jurisdiction in the country.
Apologizing for past misdeeds should be only the first step.