Moe to deliver historic apology for Sixties Scoop

No compensation for survivors to accompany address on Jan. 7

REGINA The Saskatchewan government is planning on apologizing to Sixties Scoop survivors on Jan. 7, 2019.

“I’m going to be feeling probably like a little bit emotional and a little bit like I’m really proud that we accomplished something, and it’s a historical thing, so I’m glad it will be done, and to acknowledge survivors of the Sixties Scoop,” said Melissa Parkyn, a Sixties Scoop survivor who advocated for an apology and is part of the group that helped organize it.

It has been a long-promised apology, with the Saskatchewan government stating since 2015 its desire to do so.

That promise was made again during Premier Scott Moe’s throne speech in October.

On Monday, an invitation for the apology was sent out. It includes a pipe ceremony, grand entrance and an apology address from Moe at the Legislative Building in Regina.

Earlier this year, the province shifted its focus in co-ordinating an apology for the Sixties Scoop, announcing it was responding to criticism from survivors by planning an apology with survivors, rather than Metis Nation-saskatchewan (MN-S) and the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN).

The government began working with a group known as the Sixties Scoop Indigenous Society Saskatchewan (SSISS), composed of survivors of the government program that saw thousands of Indigenous children taken by child welfare workers from their families and communities and placed elsewhere.

According to a statement from the province, the apology will follow six sharing circles across the province co-ordinated by the government and SSISS.

Parkyn is a co-chair of SSISS, which first met with the Saskatchewan government to discuss an apology in April.

Rod Belanger, who was taken away from his family when he was three years old, is also a member of SSISS.

He questioned the apology date, saying it’s “pretty controversial in the scope of time management” because it’s scheduled to take place a short time after the Christmas holidays.

He said a date for the apology was discussed with government earlier this month and that Jan. 7 was confirmed to him a few days ago.

Belanger said the apology is “important because it gives the voice back to those who have been silenced for so long.”

He also charged there are still children being apprehended under current child welfare laws.

“Power is being taken away from Indigenous people and governing our own systems,” he said, adding there are “still people locked in the system without a voice.”

As of Sept. 30, 2018, there were 3,197 children in the care of the province and 2,030 children in persons of sufficient interest (PSI) placements, which have been in place since 1989 and are designated for children in need of protection to stay with extended family members.

Of the 5,227 total youth in care of the government, 73.3 per cent of them were self-identified as Indigenous, according to the province.

Last month, the province maintained it is “still consulting” on a major overhaul, first announced six years ago, of its foster-care system.

FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron has requested to have compensation attached to an apology, but the Sask. Party has long stated it would not do so.

In a statement Monday, the province said: “In co-ordinating the sharing circles and developing the apology, the Government of Saskatchewan and SSISS agreed that compensation will not be part of the apology.”

No details of the apology’s content are being released by the province prior to Jan. 7.