An Indigenous activist from Beausoleil First Nation said the resignation of Lynn Beyak as a Canadian senator has come too late.
While Indigenous people across Canada are relieved Beyak is leaving the Senate, Tori Cress said, Beyak was allowed to stick around the upper chamber for far too long.
The controversial senator from northwestern Ontario stepped down on Jan. 25, after years of condemnation for her support of residential schools and remarks on other Indigenous issues.
An unapologetic Beyak, 71, quit the Senate three years before her mandatory retirement date. She leaves as other senators were preparing to consider a motion to remove her from the Red Chamber.
Beyak was suspended from the Senate twice for inflammatory comments defending residential schools and for posting racist, anti-Indigenous letters on her taxpayer-funded website. Beyak previously said residential schools were well-intentioned and there were good elements to the program.
Cress said with comments like that, Beyak had no business being allowed to remain a senator for as long as she has.
“The problem with Lynn Beyak is that she is upholding a false narrative that residential schools were helpful to Indigenous people; they were so harmful. I am currently dealing with people in their 60s who are dealing with unresolved childhood trauma all directly connected to residential schools, (Indian) Day Schools and displacement of Indigenous people from their land,” Cress said. “She’s got an audience of people who are listening to this narrative. She’s doing the opposite of all the hard work Indigenous people have done to raise awareness of how harmful the practice was.”
For years, it was frustrating for Indigenous people who watched as some Canadians just accepted and, in some cases, condoned Beyak’s comments, Cress said.
“Canadians are not outraged enough to have demanded the removal of her. If they had spoken up — if their voices had been heard — I think it would have played out differently,” Cress said. “But when it’s only Indigenous people who are speaking up and outraged, no one is backing us. Our voices have been silenced.”
Cress said that if governments are serious about reconciliation, then they should listen to Indigenous leaders when they are considering important, high-level appointments, like senators.
“We have to have some consultations because decisions are being made on a federal level that affect our lives for generations to come,” she said. “We have to have a say in the matter. Our voices have to be heard. Our voices never get heard. When they do get heard, it’s only because we’ve set tires on fire, because we have no alternative left to get Canadians’ attention about the oppression we are living, right here and now.”
Beyak was appointed to the Senate by former prime minister Stephen Harper in 2013. Had Beyak been removed from the Senate, Parliament could have put the brakes on her lifetime pension. But since she resigned, Beyak is to receive her pension, as she has reportedly met the contribution requirements. Cress said Indigenous people are livid about that as well.
The motion to remove Beyak from the Senate was introduced by Independent Sen. Mary Jane McCallum, herself a residential school survivor.
McCallum said, “A modern Senate is no place for racism to exist,” adding that Beyak’s actions are contrary to how Parliamentarians expect themselves and each other to act.
-John McFadden, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Barrie Advance
