Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, in view of the anniversary of the public apology of our federal government with respect to the immeasurable harm of residential school survivors and to them and to their families, I’d like to just say today that for sure I’m not an expert or a counselor or anyone who has any credentials in family relations, but I was a child and I am a parent. One thing I do know, it goes against all the laws of nature to take a child away from their parents. The authority of a parent is tempered with love and security in the bond between them. That authority is misplaced when it is given to someone else who does not have that relationship with a child.
We know about the benefits of secure attachment between a child and a parent, and we know about the immeasurable harm when a child is deprived of that formative bond. To add more injury to the situation in the case of residential schools, there was abuse we know that occurred on a large scale. We also know that another thing that added injury to the situation of the removal of these children was undertaken by people who claimed to be the representatives of Almighty God. That creates further confusion as people go forward in their life when they look for a faith in which to call upon any kind of supernatural intervention or support in their life.
I’d like to applaud the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission throughout our country. I had the privilege of attending the hearings on the Hay River Reserve and hear people go forward, witness after witness, and tell their story of what they had experienced. They were friends of mine that appeared there, that I have known for years and years, but I didn’t know their story until they mustered the courage to go before that panel that day and tell that story.
It’s very, very difficult to hear of injustice, of discrimination, of intimidation that occurred in such recent history in our country and in our North, but the healing does have to begin somewhere and I believe this is a step towards that. We as a government have an obligation now to support the survivors in every way we possibly can to go on with their lives and to recover from this misplaced policy of this generation and previous generations. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
