Debates of October 19, 2006 (day 11)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, just recently my colleagues were making a statement on residential schools. I would also like to make a statement, Mr. Speaker, to that effect.

Growing up in Inuvik, I was one of the town boys. There were the town boys and the hostel boys. I grew up beside these boys. I went to school with them, but I didn’t realize, Mr. Speaker, the conditions that these boys had to live in. Lately, with all the research that I have been doing and questions I have been asking, I had a chance to reflect on the conditions that they put up with. I have a whole new admiration, Mr. Speaker, for the many boys who went to residential school and the way they are doing today.

I hear them talking about the term survivor and that’s a real appropriate term because, Mr. Speaker, I believe that’s what they are. They are survivors. To hear comments being made questioning some of that has upset me that much more. It’s hard to imagine the frustration that a lot of these survivors felt when they heard the comments coming from the Premier to the media. Have these people not suffered enough, Mr. Speaker, without having the head of the government make such comments and open old wounds?

When I heard this, Mr. Speaker, I have to ask myself a question; a very serious question. Have I not done enough to hold the Premier accountable for his remarks? Have I not done enough to show my support for these survivors and hold the Premier accountable for these remarks? Mr. Speaker, in speaking to a lot of them, some of them wish they were town boys, so they could go home at the end of the day, but that was impossible. To this day, Mr. Speaker, all they wanted was to be believed. Thank you.

---Applause