Lynn Beyak Axed from Senate Committee over Comments Defending Residential Schools

Global News
April 5, 2017

http://globalnews.ca/news/3359912/lynn-beyak-residential-schools-comments/

Conservative Sen. Lynn Beyak, who famously declared “some good” came out of Canada’s residential schools, has been removed from the Senate’s committee on aboriginal peoples.

A spokesperson for interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose says the senator’s controversial comments do not reflect the party’s position on residential schools.

Earlier this week, an indigenous senator who sits on the committee said she would boycott its meetings as long as Beyak was still a member.

READ MORE: Senator who defended residential schools urged to leave aboriginal committee

Sen. Sandra Lovelace Nicholas says she was “shocked and dismayed” by her Senate colleague’s remarks.

Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission spent six years examining the legacy of the government-funded, church-operated schools, infamous hotbeds of abuse and mistreatment that operated from the 1870s to 1996.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde has also called for Beyak to be removed from the committee.