’60S SCOOP
Apology is not likely before Wall steps down
Premier Brad Wall says he is not confident he will make an apology to First Nations and Metis people for the ’60s Scoop before he steps down at the end of January.
“No, I’m not confident it’s going to happen, based on my two years of experience since I made these announcements,” he said.
Wall announced in 2015 the province would apologize for the role it played in the ’60s Scoop, which saw First Nations and Metis children removed from their families, without consent, and adopted into non-Indigenous families. Often, the parents were never told where their children were placed. Families were torn apart, and Indigenous children were raised without their culture.
Scheduling conflicts and internal politics of First Nations and Metis groups have been blamed for past delays in the formal apology, but now Wall says the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) wants financial compensation.
Wall said Thursday, “I just don’t agree with” giving financial compensation, a sentiment he has repeated several times.
“I don’t think an apology is any less sincere just because there is not cash that comes along with it,” he said.
In October, the federal government announced it will pay up to $750 million to ’60s Scoop victims who were taken from their homes. The agreement is aimed at compensating eligible survivors, which breaks down to between $25,000 and $50,000 per victim.
FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron told MBC (Missinipi Broadcasting Corporation) last month “there has to be some substance to the apology” and said he would be seeking the same, or at least half, of what the federal government offered.
On Thursday, though, FSIN vice-chief Heather Bear said “the fiduciary responsibility lies with the federal government.”
“The federal government has assumed authority over our children, and with that assumed authority they have delegated the province, so I think we need to deal with the federal issue and as far as how it rolls out, the province would be impacted irregardless, so I think we need to focus on the federal government, that’s my view,” she said.
NDP Opposition First Nations and Metis critic Buckley Belanger said the province is causing damage by “closing the door on discussion around compensation.”
“If you’re serious about reconciliation, if you’re serious about resolving some of these matters, you would have continual dialogue. You will have a respectful relationship and you’ll also talk about the issues of compensation, because if those are not part and parcel of the discussions, then what’s the use of having an apology?” he said.
“We can’t simply have a public photo-op saying you want to do an apology, there has to be some hard discussions in the backrooms to hammer out some kind of deal to deal with the damage caused.”