CANADA
Metro
By: Kristy Kirkup The Canadian Press Published on Thu Mar 09 2017
OTTAWA — Conservative MPs distanced themselves from one of their own Thursday after a Tory senator suggested there were positive aspects to Canada’s residential school system.
Caucus members, including Tory indigenous affairs critic Cathy McLeod, made it clear they do not support or agree with Sen. Lynn Beyak, appointed to the upper chamber by former prime minister Stephen Harper.
On Wednesday, Beyak told the Senate that the government-funded, church-operated schools where indigenous children endured widespread sexual and physical abuse were not all bad.
“I speak partly for the record, but mostly in memory of the kindly and well-intentioned men and women and their descendants — perhaps some of us here in this chamber — whose remarkable works, good deeds and historical tales in the residential schools go unacknowledged for the most part and are overshadowed by negative reports,” she said.
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