OTTAWA — Survivors of the ’60s Scoop are asking the public for support as they push back against a proposed government settlement they say doesn’t go far enough in righting a historic injustice.
Rallies were organized today by the National Indigenous Survivors of Child Welfare Network in eight cities across the country, including Montreal, Edmonton, Vancouver and Whitehorse.
Network director Duane Morrisseau-Beck says the government’s proposed $800-million compensation package failed to adequately consult survivors and excludes those Metis who were forcibly adopted.
Speaking at the rally on Parliament Hill, Nadine Delorme-Simon says it took 30 years to track down her birth mother in Fort Resolution, N.W.T, but the discovery has allowed her and her children to reconnect with their heritage.
The office of Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett has said the government is committed to negotiating to resolve any ongoing litigation and the proposed settlement is a first step.
The ’60s Scoop saw the federal government take thousands of Indigenous children from their homes and place them with non-Indigenous foster families across the country.