‘We were both crying:’ Sask. to apologize for ’60s Scoop

Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger officially apologized to indigenous families for the government’s role in the Canadian practice.

“I think Robert made it pretty clear … that an apology from the provincial government for what happened in the past … would mean a lot to him,” Wall said.

“We are going to work on such a formal and official apology to all of those affected by the ’60s Scoop.”

Wall will be meeting with aboriginal leaders and stakeholders in the province to make sure they “get it right.”

The term ”60s Scoop’ refers to the Canadian practice, beginning in the 1960s and continuing until the late 1980s, of taking or “scooping up” aboriginal children from their families and placing them in foster homes or adopting them out, largely to white families. Some children were kept nearby but others ended up across the country, in the United States, or even in Europe.

Some estimates suggest around 20,000 children were removed from their families, although the number varies because not all children were recorded as “status Indian” on their documents.

‘Never again will … anybody countenance a child being removed from their family so that their culture can be somehow removed from them or expunged in some way. That’s what’s very offensive about what happened in the past across country and in our province,” Wall said.

“That’s why there needs to be an apology but also, we can talk about what measures we can do to help those who are perhaps affected by that today and also can we move forward in terms of educating others.”

Wall pointed to work the government has been doing in respect to regulations around adoptions making it easier for people to find birth parents.

Doucette applauded Wall and said this moment is another turning point in the history of Saskatchewan.

“I want to thank him for that,” Doucette said.

Wall said they will talk about adding the ’60s Scoop history to treaty education for students across the province. He added that it will include developing the initiatives already in place to help aboriginal people to fully engage in the economy and close the gap in graduation rates between aboriginal and non-aboriginal students.

In 2014, the Saskatchewan children’s advocate said 83 per cent of children in care in the province are aboriginal. Wall said the current over-representation of aboriginal children in care is different because the ’60s Scoop was about removing aboriginal culture.

“That’s something completely different than the issue of children in care,” he said, emphasizing the changes being made in the last five years.

“The overall number of children in care is down … (We’ve added) almost 100 new front line childcare workers.”

Wall added the apology would likely come in the fall and there would be no financial compensation attached.

The Merchant Law Group launched class action litigation against the federal government proposing compensation on behalf of more than 1,000 people impacted by the ’60s Scoop program.

panews@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @KellyGerMalone

by Kelly Malone

‘We were both crying:’ Sask. to apologize for ’60s Scoop

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