Alberta premier set to apologize to survivors of Sixties Scoop JANET FRENCH
It was an emotional day nearly two years ago when Adam North Peigan watched Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger be the first to apologize to thousands of Indigenous children who were ripped from their birth parents to be raised by non-Indigenous families.
A Sixties Scoop survivor himself, Edmonton’s North Peigan grew determined to hear an apology from Alberta’s premier and, within days, began a letter-writing campaign.
On Monday afternoon, North Peigan, who was just a baby when social workers took him from his family on the Piikani First Nation in southern Alberta, will get his wish when Premier Rachel Notley apologizes in the legislature.
“To me, that’s a huge, huge accomplishment for Indigenous people in Alberta and across Canada,” North Peigan said last week.
The president of the Sixties Scoop Indigenous Society of Alberta said from the 1950s to the 1990s, an estimated 20,000 to 25,0000 Indigenous children were apprehended by provincial governments and put into foster care or adoptive homes where they lost their culture, language, and sense of identity.
When North Peigan and his nine siblings were seized, they were separated. He felt a profound sense of abandonment as he moved between six foster homes and two shelters throughout his childhood.
He returned to the Piikani First Nation as an adult, met his parents and siblings, and experienced “a culture shock like no one could imagine.”
Full of anger and resentment, he used alcohol and drugs to numb the pain, and ended up living in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
It was 1994, when B.C. social workers apprehended his two oldest daughters, that he was determined not to let the cycle perpetuate. He went into addiction treatment, got clean, and a year later, regained custody of his daughters and became a single dad.
In preparation for an apology, the Alberta government and Sixties Scoop society held six engagement sessions across the province this past winter and spring to hear stories from survivors.
North Peigan, now 54, is looking for an apology that is sincere and acknowledges the pain and suffering thousands of people endured as a result of government actions.
An apology should be a first step that catalyzes public investment in counselling, healing programs, and community gatherings that will give survivors safe places to share their experiences, he said.
For another survivor who was physically abused by foster parents, a provincial government apology seems futile.
Donald Morin’s early childhood memories are a blur of people in suits, car rides and dark rooms as he was shuffled between 16 foster homes before age four.
Morin, 61, and his siblings were seized from his mother’s care when he and his twin brother were toddlers. His father had died when he became disoriented while tracking deer during a snowstorm near their eastern Alberta home.
At one point, Morin and his brother were placed with a farm family who hit him with horse bridles and willow branches if he didn’t rise early to complete his chores.
One day, he said the family sent him into Edmonton on the bus to get some photographs developed. After missing the bus home, he was scared and alone when a man said he would help him. The man took him to a house, offered him a ham and cheese sandwich and wine, then, along with another man, sexually assaulted Morin.
The interdisciplinary artist, who now works as a courier and delivers flowers, spent years addicted to hard drugs, trying to cope with his anger.
It’s not a “sorry” Morin is looking for, but programs and services to help people who are disenfranchised, who are ineligible for government compensation, and who are living with the intergenerational repercussions.
“An apology, fine. What are you going to do for the people?”
A grand entry and smudging ceremony will take place Monday on the legislature grounds, followed by an address from Notley in the assembly.