THUNDER BAY - First Nations leadership are calling on the public across Canada to put pressure on embattled senator, Lynn Beyak, to resign with the launch of a petition and website.
On Tuesday, Nishnawbe Aski Nation and Grand Council Treaty #3 launched the website, beyakresign.ca, which includes an online petition calling for Beyak’s resignation from the Senate of Canada, along with ways to contact the senator, and a downloadable version of the petition.
“Senator Beyak’s shameful defense of the Indian Residential School system is unbefitting for a member of the Senate,” said NAN grand Chief, Alvin Fiddler in a media release. “Her lack of knowledge and empathy for the horrors of the Residential School experience is offensive to survivors and all the children who were lost.”
Beyak, of Dryden, Ont., was recently removed from the Conservative caucus by leader, Andrew Scheer, after failing to remove letters from her website that many deemed racist in nature. Fiddler applauded her removal from caucus, but wanted it taken a step further by seeing her resign her seat on the Senate.
NAN and Grand Council Treaty #3 have been calling for Beyak’s resignation since March, 2017, after Beyak said there were positive aspects of the Residential School system.
“The Senator is entitled to her personal opinions, but we are appalled that such inaccurate, racist and spiteful sentiments are being expressed by a representative of Canadian Parliament,” Fiddler said. “We call on all First Nations and our allies, the broader communities in Dryden, Kenora, and Thunder Bay to join as we petition for Senator Beyak’s resignation.”
Petitions are being distributed to all NAN and Grand Council Treaty #3 First Nation communities calling for Beyak’s resignation.
The petition has been signed by Grand Council Treaty #3 Ogichidaa Francis Kavanaugh and Grand Chief Jerry Daniels of the Southern Chiefs Organization of Manitoba.
“There is no other way to describe Senator Beyak’s views but as deplorable,” Kavanaugh said.
