CREDIT: GOVERNMENT OF CANADA
Conservative Senator Lynn Beyak caused a stir in Senate when she tried to point out positives of the residential schools.

Conservative Senator Lynn Beyak mounted a defense for the “well-intentioned” Canada’s res­idential school system as “good”. Some were shocked by her com­ments about the indigenous chil­dren in government-funded, church-operated schools who en­dured widespread sexual and phys­ical abuse.

“I speak partly for the record, but mostly in memory of the kind­ly and well-intentioned men and women and their descendants per­haps some of us here in this cham­ber whose remarkable works, good deeds and historical tales in the residential schools go unacknowl­edged for the most part,” she said.

“I am thinking about the words of Senator Lynn Beyak, and how it makes me feel. The difficult part, and the best part of being indige­nous is that we don’t separate the rationale from the emotional or from our spiritual connections,” said Guy Williams, manager at Fanshawe’s First Nations Centre. “We are taught by our elders to try to learn from our experiences and respond in a good way.”

According to Global News, Sen. Murray Sinclair, former chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Com­mission, said he was shocked by her statements.

“I am a bit shocked, senator, that you still hold some views that have been proven to be incorrect over the years, but, nonetheless, I ac­cept that you have the right to hold them,” Sinclair said to Beyak.

“I am not sure what the intent was of Senator Beyak’s position,” Williams said. “Was it to send out a message that not all the people who worked at the residential schools were bad people? Is it to say that the actions of the churches and the government were defensi­ble.”

In the Senate on March 7, Beyak said, “Mistakes were made at res­idential schools in many instanc­es, horrible mistakes that over­shadowed some good things that also happened at those schools.”

“Is it a defence of the idea of Canada as this place of hope and opportunity for the many settlers who have created a life with one of the best standards of living in the world; while not having to think of the diseases the settlers brought with them that brought death and illness to Indigenous communities, to the current living conditions on First Nations that is embarrassing to the Government of Canada with as much wealth as it has drawn from the resources of these lands,” Williams said.

Benson Matthew, a first-year student at Fanshawe, shared his opinion on Beyak’s speech.

“As an indigenous person, I re­gret that her understanding about the indigenous people is wrong, I am not really sure what the main intention of her speech was. But there was nothing good about lots of children going missing or about burying children far from their na­tive homes.”

According to CBC News, indig­enous caucus wrote in a public let­ter calling on Beyak to apologize and resign her seat from the Sen­ate immediately as her views are inconsistent with the spirit of rec­onciliation that is required in both chambers of parliament.