CANADA
Toronto Star
By BRUCE CAMPION-SMITH
Ottawa Bureau
Wed., April 5, 2017
OTTAWA—Sen. Lynn Beyak, who stirred controversy for saying there was an “abundance of good” in the residential school system has been removed from the Senate committee that oversees aboriginal issues.
Interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose made the move Wednesday after continued pressure from critics who wanted Beyak, a Conservative senator, off the committee, even out of the Senate entirely.
“Ms. Ambrose has been clear that Sen. Beyak’s views do not reflect the Conservative Party’s position on residential schools,” Jake Enwright, press secretary for Ambrose, said in a statement that tried to distance the party from the controversy.
“It was prime minister Stephen Harper who made an historic apology to the victims of residential schools and launched the Truth and Reconciliation Commission,” Enwright said.
In a speech on March 7, Beyak highlighted what she called the “somewhat different side of the residential school story.”
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