CANADA
APTN National News
Senator Lynn Beyak says her removal from the Senate’s Aboriginal Peoples committee for complimenting the work of nurses and teachers who did an “abundance of good” in residential schools is a serious threat against freedom of speech.
“For me to lose my position on the Aboriginal Peoples Committee for complimenting the work of nurses, teachers, foster families and legions of other decent, caring Canadians – along with highlighting inspiring stories spoken by Aboriginal people themselves – is a serious threat to freedom of speech,” said the Conservative senator in a statement Thursday, a day after she was removed on the committee.
Beyak sparked outrage when she spoke in the Senate on March 7 to defend the good work of residential schools that forced over 100,000 Indigenous children into schools where it’s documented many suffered sexual assaults, physical abuse for speaking their language and death.
This is a portion of what Beyak said in the Senate: “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 and are overshadowed by negative reports. Obviously, the negative issues must be addressed, but it is unfortunate that they are sometimes magnified and considered more newsworthy than the abundance of good.”
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