Give Lynn Beyak the boot
Let Senator Lynn Beyak’s recent questioning of a residential school survivor put to rest the debate about whether she is fit to sit on the Upper House’s Aboriginal peoples committee. She is not. The Conservative caucus should remove her from the committee. And her Tory colleagues should consider what her continued caucus membership says about their party.
Last week, Beyak listened along with fellow committee members as Doris Young, an elderly Cree woman, testified tearfully about the traumas she suffered in residential schools and how they shaped her life. She spoke of the loss of her language, the dislocation from family and community, the suicidal thoughts that plagued her.
Such testimony is crucial as Parliament works to understand the intergenerational impact of residential schools and how to mitigate the damage. Yet its meaning seemed lost on Beyak. The senator jumped in as soon as Young was finished and asked her views on, of all things, a proposal to audit First Nations spending to root out waste. (Young, taken aback, didn’t seem to think too highly of it.)
This, of course, was not Beyak’s first or even most notable display of thoughtlessness. Earlier in March, the senator 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.”
You know, on the one hand, clean clothes; on the other, “the atrocities.”
No doubt people can find moments of grace in even the worst of places. And it’s true that some students would say they derived value from the education they received. But none of this does anything to lessen the profound injustice of Ottawa’s longstanding policy of forced assimilation. It does nothing to erase or ease the devastating consequences of culture loss and a legacy of abuse.
How, after all we have learned in recent years, does a member of the Senate’s Aboriginal peoples committee still not understand this?
Perhaps because Beyak believes she has nothing to learn. In the weeks since her remarks, as the chorus of critics calling for her resignation has grown, she has stubbornly refused to backtrack or draw any lessons from the debacle. Citing a friendship with an “aboriginal fellow,” Beyak insists instead, “I don’t need any more education.”
That attitude alone should disqualify her from sitting on the committee. But whether she stays or goes is up to the Conservative caucus in the Senate, which has so far circled the wagons. While many say they find Beyak’s comments offensive, they insist she has the right to free speech.
That, of course, is a red herring. No one is suggesting she be locked up. But the ignorance and insensitivity she has displayed clearly invalidate her position as a parliamentary representative on this profoundly important, complex and sensitive file. She has shown that she lacks the basic competencies to continue in this role.
Her colleagues should remove her from the committee. And if they stand by their former leader’s official apology for the harm done by residential schools, they should consider whether someone who has displayed such ignorance of history and insensitivity to suffering should be allowed to sit as a Conservative.