’60s Scoop survivors hope deal prompts change
Indigenous adults who were taken from their families between the 1960s and 1980s hope an agreement in principle reached with Ottawa will halt the practice of separating Aboriginal children from their communities, language and culture.
Beaverhouse First Nation Chief Marcia Brown Martel, who was placed in the foster system as a child only to suffer emotional, physical and sexual abuse, said Friday she has “great hope” now a deal has been reached with the federal government including up to $750 million in compensation for victims.
At 54, she said she’s still working to heal from childhood trauma.
“People ask me ‘How did you survive?’” she said. “I don’t know ... I could not bring myself to addiction because I was suicidal. I knew that if I ever drank, if I ever did drugs, that I would kill myself.”
In February, the Ontario Superior Court found the government liable for the harm caused by what is known as the ’60s Scoop. Brown Martel was the representative plaintiff.
“I have great hope that because we’ve reached this plateau that this again will never, ever happen in Canada again,” Brown Martel said Friday as she stood beside Crown-Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett on Parliament Hill as the settlement was announced.
At the same time, she warned, Indigenous children are still subject to the “millennium scoop.”
“Children are still within the child welfare system,” she said later in an interview. “Our children need to come home.”
Bennett fought back tears Friday as she announced details of the deal, a package that also includes up to $50 million for a foundation for healing and reconciliation.
Compensation will go to individuals classified as status Indians and Inuit while the federal government has also earmarked $75 million for legal fees.
Only individuals affected can determine whether the settlement meets their needs, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde said in a statement.
“The courts of Canada can never compensate, in any amount, the loss of family, community, identity, language and culture,” he said. “True justice means creating hope and opportunity for the survivors.”
Anna Betty Achneepineskum, deputy grand chief of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation — an umbrella organization representing 49 communities in northern Ontario — said she is pleased to see the government has “finally been held accountable” for the devastating legacy of the ’60s Scoop.
“We pray this settlement will help the plaintiffs and all Canadians on the journey towards healing and reconciliation,” she said.
The ’60s Scoop was a dark and painful chapter in Canada’s history, Bennett said Friday.
“Their stories are heartbreaking,” Bennett said. “They talked of their identity being stolen. They talked about not really feeling you belong anywhere because people have been moved so often or that they didn’t really have a home.”