Senator must go: Thunder Bay council says No

Wednesday, September 27th, 2017 10:39am
Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin
“The excuses made by members of Council for their failure to act are cowardly and an embarrassment for Thunder Bay and northwestern Ontario."

Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler and Fort William First Nation Chief Peter Collins are calling out the mayor of Thunder Bay and the city councillors who failed to support a motion that called for the resignation of controversial Senator Lynn Beyak.

“It is unconscionable that City Council failed to support this call for the resignation of Senator Lynn Beyak after her insulting and racist comments. Just last month we signed a Statement of Commitment with the City to fight racism and make Thunder Bay a safer, more welcoming place for First Nation people,” said Fiddler.

Voting against the motion, initiated by the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association, was Mayor Keith Hobbs, and councillors Rebecca Johnson, Linda Rydholm, Joe Virdiramo, Brian McKinnon and Trevor Giertuga.

Fiddler called the decision “extremely disappointing” and “insulting” for council to be celebrated in the editorial section of a local newspaper, but “failed to show solidarity for victims of the residential school experience.”

Beyak has stated, despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary, that much good came from decades upon decades of removing Native children from their Indigenous communities and families to house them in institutions where their culture and spirituality was stripped from them and they left subject to physical, mental and sexual abuse from authorities in charge of the schools.

“The excuses made by members of Council for their failure to act are cowardly and an embarrassment for Thunder Bay and northwestern Ontario. Reconciliation is meaningless without action, and Council missed a significant opportunity to stand with us,” Fiddler says in a statement.

Collins, chief of Fort William First Nation on which the traditional territory the city of Thunder Bay is built, said “we see this as another setback in the development of positive relationships with the municipality. Our Council signed a Declaration of Commitment with the City in 2011, and most recently the tri-lateral Statement of Commitment with NAN and the City. The lack of knowledge and understanding demonstrated by some members of City Council on these issues is a barrier to the reconciliation we are working so hard to achieve.”