Sixties Scoop ‘historical injustice:’ Selinger

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This article was published 18/06/2015 (3853 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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There were tears, tales of anguish and loss — and an apology from Premier Greg Selinger for an “historical injustice.”

The Manitoba government formally said it was sorry Thursday for its role in the Sixties Scoop, which saw more than 20,000 indigenous children swept from their communities in Canada and adopted in homes as far away as Europe and the southern United States.

In what is believed to be a first for a Canadian province, Selinger offered the apology in the legislature while Sixties Scoop survivors, family members and indigenous leaders looked down from the visitors gallery.

“I am deeply sorry for the harm it caused and continues to cause for survivors, their families and descendants,” he said.

The apology was preceded by an emotional ceremony in the building’s rotunda, which saw two adoptees speak of the hurt they and their families felt at being ripped apart.

Selinger acknowledged that the Sixties Scoop, which saw provincial family services workers seize indigenous children and arrange for their adoption to non-indigenous parents, has created intergenerational scars and cultural loss.

“With these words of apology and regret, I hope that all Canadians will join me in recognizing this historical injustice. I hope they will join me in acknowledging the pain and suffering of the thousands of children who were taken from their homes,” the premier said.

Later, he vowed that the dark episode in Canadian history, stretching from the 1960s until the 1980s, would be taught to Manitoba schoolchildren in social studies classes along with the story of residential schools.

The premier also promised to raise the issue with other provincial leaders.

And he said his government would consider offering financial compensation to survivors. The government has already been working with an advisory committee of Sixties Scoop survivors.

“We’ll work on their priorities and we’ll see where the issue of compensation goes,” he told reporters.

Indigenous leaders were generally happy that the government had taken what they called an important first step.

However, Manitoba Metis Federation president David Chartrand said he was upset that his organization had not been consulted in the lead-up to the apology. He said he was given little notice of Thursday’s event.

“I have met with the premier on many occasions. Not once has this been raised on the agenda,” Chartrand told the media.

He questioned the government’s motivation on the timing of the apology, wondering if it was an attempt by an unpopular government to improve its political fortunes.

“Is it because elections are coming up around the corner…?” he said.

Selinger noted that Metis people were mentioned in his statement, and that members of the Metis community are included in the survivors group his government consults. As for the timing, he said it was fitting that it be done during legislative session.

Derek Nepinak, grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, commended the dozens of survivors who came out to hear the government’s apology.

He said whether the day turns out to be a truly historic one will depend on the future actions of government. “We don’t put a lot of stock in words. It’s going to be the actions that follow the apology that are going to mean the most at the end of the day.”

Earlier, two Sixties Scoop survivors shared their stories with the media, dignitaries, family members and friends.

Local journalist and filmmaker Coleen Rajotte talked about growing up in the Weston area of Winnipeg in a white middle class home and how she came to learn as an adult about her Saskatchewan First Nations roots.

“I know the feeling of not fitting in while growing up, the feeling of being alone in a crowded room, of being uncomfortable and ashamed …(about) not knowing anything about my culture…” she said.

Eventually, she obtained copies of letters her birth mother wrote to family services officials — often around her birthday — pleading for information about her daughter.

The discovery of the letters left Rajotte in a state of shock. “I didn’t cry. I was frozen. I didn’t know what to do. It was too much to process.”

Adoptee Marlene Orgeron, spoke of being seized from a Manitoba aboriginal community as a young child and eventually sent to a family in New Orleans.

In her U.S. adopted home, she said she suffered years of physical and mental abuse. “I grew up wanting to die, wanting this pain to end,” she said.

Rajotte, who has documented many Sixties60 Scoop survivor stories, said she would like the government to provide counselling services for adoptees.

She said a national information campaign should be launched in the United States pointing adoptees to a 1-800 number so that they can receive help reconnecting with birth families in Canada.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca

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