Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I had an opportunity to watch the Prime Minister of Canada make an official apology to residential school survivors in Canada and, more importantly, to the children who are no longer here.
It was very hard to hear the Prime Minister of Canada talk about an issue I feel has affected me greatly due to the loss of so many friends to suicide and death because of the residential school experience. Those individuals are not here today to see the apology and also to have an opportunity to deal with the many challenges they had to face and the lives they have lost because of the institutional screw-up that the Government of Canada made.
It’s very hard to stand here and talk about an issue that I feel. Nothing can bring back those children, my friends. There’s no amount of money in the world that can bring back your culture, your language or your lifestyle, which was so unique prior to the Europeans coming to Canada. These people had their own systems of caring for their children, caring for their elders, caring for their communities, being gathered so that everybody was able to sustain themselves. It was hard to see the elders on the television crying, because I also shed a tear.
We have to do better for the aboriginal people of Canada, the aboriginal people of the Northwest Territories, and the ones who are still hurting. These people had their own governance systems. These people were self-reliant. These people were able to care for their children, their elders and their communities. Yet look at what it has done to the generations of people from this concept being implemented in the mid-1800s to where we are today. It has affected us greatly in our ability to function in society, our ability to govern ourselves and our ability to retain our languages.
Mr.
Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to
conclude my statement.
Unanimous consent granted.
As we know, the first indigenous people have been involved. In some places the archeologists were able to trace their ancestry back for 10,000 years in northern Canada. Where are we today?
I can quote the Prime Minister of Canada when he basically states that never again will we have such a policy in place by way of the residential school policy. We do have a policy. It’s called apprehension. We have over 630 children in foster homes and care facilities in the Northwest Territories. In southern institutions there are some 8,300 children who are under foster care on reserves in southern Canada. What are we doing different?
I will be asking the Minister of Health questions with regard to what we are doing with 630 children in care, of whom 570 are aboriginal.