THUNDER BAY - For eight years, Marcia Brown Martel has been the voice for so many others who were not able to speak. Now after a landmark court ruling in favour of plaintiffs in the Sixties Scoop lawsuit, Brown Martel said she was struck with happy silence.
“I sat for a moment and read the email and nodded my head and put my head down,” she said. “After such a long time with so many people who have come to help, come to say yes, this is a good thing to do, this is a good way for our people’s across this country to heal. When you finally see that day when a law in Canada will protect, not just our children, but all children within our Canadian borders.”
Brown Martel, chief of the Beaverhouse First Nation, addressed Nishnawbe Aski Nation chiefs during the opening session of a Children and Youth Forum in Thunder Bay. She was honoured by NAN chiefs for being the lead plaintiff in a $1.3-billion lawsuit against the government of Canada for its role in what has become known as the Sixties Scoop.
The lawsuit, which has been in the courts since February 2009, came to an end on Feb. 14, 2017 when an Ontario Superior Court judge ruled in favour of the plaintiffs.
“When Canada’s judicial system can stand up and say: we need to protect the children within Canadian borders and throughout the world, there are just some things you do because they are good and right, and this is one of them,” Brown Martel said.
From the early 1960s to the mid-1980s, First Nations children were taken from their families and placed in non-Indigenous care. A class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of survivors citing years of psychological damage suffered as a result of being removed from their families and culture, with Brown Martel serving as the lead plaintiff.
“I said way back in 2005, yes it will be my face, yes it will be my voice, but that is because there are others who cannot speak, who cannot be here,” Brown Martel said. “It is an honour to be able to stand and say, this face, this voice is going to speak for those who cannot.”
Following the ruling, Brown Martel said a weight has been lifted from her shoulders, but she said it was never something she carried alone.
“There was leadership across this country, within the NAN territory, that helped carry that load,” she said. “It isn’t something I carried alone. It is something I carried by name, but somebody had to put their name there.”
Moving forward and determining the details of the settlement, Brown Martel said there are five avenues that need to be addressed, with inclusion being at the top of the list.
“I see that no matter what we go through in the law system, particularly when one is walking in an area that no one has walked before, all the lessons of our history, if they apply, we should have a look at and see what would be actually useful, helpful, and effective,” she said.
Brown Martel’s message to the Indigenous youth today is to be strong and to know what is right. And to hold those in leadership accountable for protecting children and youth.
For Brown Martel, and those without a voice whom she spoke on behalf of, the journey towards healing has been long, and now it can continue.
“The very first step on February 2009 was one of those healing steps,” she said. “This whole journey through these eight years have been part of that healing journey. We have just reached a plateau where we can gather things together and say: this healing can continue.”
