New Brunswick politicians acknowledged the deaths of 215 children whose remains were found at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C., with a moment of silence in the legislature on Tuesday.
Interim Liberal leader Roger Melanson said there is a need for healing and called on Premier Blaine Higgs to reach out to First Nation leadership in New Brunswick.
Responding to the question, Aboriginal Affairs Minister Arlene Dunn said the Higgs government has acknowledged systemic racism is real and the government will do something about it.
“I would also say that I have personally discussed many of these issues with First Nations in the province of New Brunswick. We recognize the importance of understanding this and making sure we are going to do something about it,” Dunn said.
Melanson said New Brunswick is not free from its own history of residential schools, noting the 12 Indian day schools which operated on or near First Nations communities.
Dunn responded by saying the government will be discussing this with First Nations leaders.
“We are gonna investigate every one of these day schools in the province of New Brunswick and determine if any of these children didn’t come home, why that happened,” she said.
Dunn said thousands of Indigenous parents have been deprived of the right to see their children grow up, and the right to educate them according to their culture.
Miramichi-Neguac Liberal MLA Lisa Harris said children across Canada have been “harmed, hurt and murdered.”
“In our country for generations and with the complicity of our institutions, thousands of Indigenous parents have been arbitrarily deprived of the right to see children grow up, the right to educate them according to their culture, the right to protect them,” Harris said.
Green Party leader David Coon asked the premier to write to the prime minister and insist his government drop its appeal of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruling.
The ruling ordered Ottawa to compensate First Nations children and their families separated due to inadequate funding of child and family services on reserve.
A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide support for former residential school students. The toll-free line can be accessed 24 hours a day, seven days a week by calling 1-866-925-4419.
