Today in the Legislature, with members of the Sixties Scoop Indigenous Society of Saskatchewan (SSISS) in attendance, the Leader of the Official Opposition Ryan Meili offered an apology for all the lives that were harmed by the Sixties Scoop.
“We’ve heard from advocates the importance of formally adding our voice to the apology for this severely damaging policy,” Meili said. “Past NDP governments share responsibility for carrying out this policy, so we must also ask forgiveness for the harm done to children, for the pain caused to parents, and for the damage to communities. With this apology, we hope the healing can begin and that we can work towards change.”
As part of the apology process, the SSISS submitted a list of recommendations to the government, but the Sask. Party didn’t release them publicly. Through a freedom of information request, the NDP obtained the recommendations and have found that the government hasn’t moved on any of them. The recommendations included creating a task force to find records, a public awareness campaign, continuing the Sharing Circles, and the creation of a research team to find ways to reduce the number of kids in care.
“The apology that we added our voices to today is an important step, but it can’t be the only step,” Meili said. “We’re asking the provincial government to honour the entirely reasonable recommendations that came out of the apology process. The fact that they haven’t yet is troubling, and we hope they will act quickly to rectify this.”