Text of federal government’s apology to Manitoba Dene
TADOULE LAKE, Man. — The federal government apologized Tuesday for the forced relocation of the Sayisi Dene First Nation in northern Manitoba 60 years ago. Here is the full text of the apology as delivered by Indigenous and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett in Tadoule Lake, Man:
Chief, Elders, youth, Sayisi Dene community members, and especially the 18 survivors of the 1956 relocation and those who lived through the years in Churchill, I am honoured to be with you here today. I am here on behalf of the Government of Canada, the Prime Minister and all Canadians to apologize for the relocation of the Sayisi Dene.
Many of your community members who were affected by the relocation are no longer with us. I would like to first pay tribute to those mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, grandparents and children who passed away before the Government of Canada delivered this apology. Today, I stand humbly before all of you, and offer the following words: we are sorry.
Sixty years ago, the Government of Canada made a tragic and fatal decision that continues to impact all Sayisi Dene First Nation members to this day. Without proper consultation, without explanation and without adequate planning, the federal government took your people from the land and the waters that sustained you at Little Duck Lake and moved you, first to Churchill and then to North Knife River.