MMF President David Chartrand announced the fund at the 2024
Annual General Assembly, with a goal of providing immediate financial
relief to eligible Red River Métis Sixties Scoop Survivors. Survivors can submit their completed applications through email at info.ssrs@mmf.mb.ca, or by appointment at 200 Main Street by calling 1-877-595-2194. Applications can also be submitted by mail at:
MMF Sixties Scoop and Residential Schools Department c/o Manitoba Métis Federation 200 Main Street Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 1A8
Beginning
in the mid-1950s and lasting until the early 1980s, a series of
policies enacted by provincial child welfare authorities saw thousands
of First Nations children taken from their homes and families, placed in
foster homes, and eventually adopted out to white families from across
Canada and the United States. (Sheila North/CBC)
First Nations
leaders in Manitoba are adding their voices to the call for a
federal inquiry into a dark history known as the Sixties Scoop.
Beginning
in the mid-1950s and lasting until the early 1990s, a series of
policies enacted by provincial child welfare authorities saw thousands
of First Nations and Inuit children taken from their homes and families,
placed in foster homes, and eventually adopted out to white families
from across Canada and the United States.
The children lost their names, their languages and connections to their heritage.
"The
Sixties Scoop legacy was just a continuation of violent and ignorant
policies that were designed by Canada to disrupt and destroy First
Nations families and communities," Grand Chief Jerry Daniels of
the Southern Chiefs' Organization in Manitoba said Monday at press
conference at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg.
He
called the practice, which began in the mid-1950s and lasted until the
early 1980s, the definition of state-sponsored violence.
"By
attacking the family structures and incentivizing the apprehension of
our families by not only the church, but now Canadian and foreign
families, they made everyday citizens complicit in the violence and
reliant on the financial compensation it came with," Daniels said.
'Trauma, hurt, pain to children'
Manitoba
Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Garrison Settee said parents who had
their children taken suffered deeply while their children were used
as commodities without any explanation from the government, he said.
"There
were commercials — government commercials — to advertise for the
adoption of First Nation children. What kind of mentality goes into that
kind of mindset to actually use our children as commodities?" Settee
asked.
"The people that were behind this policy are responsible
for trauma, hurt, pain to children. And Canada must own up to that.
That's why there should be an inquiry."
Former Canadian senator
Murray Sinclair and a group called 60s Scoop Legacy of Canada first
issued the call in early August for an inquiry.
Daniels and Settee
said their organizations held a summit in September and
unanimously passed a resolution in support of the inquiry call as well
as long-term funding support for survivors.
"It's important that
Canada understands what happened to every single one of the children
that were impacted by this. Until that's done I think we haven't really
done justice for Canadians and for all the children that were taken
away," said Daniels.
They also want to see the immediate release
of any records held by state or church-run entities "to expedite the
process of bringing families back together and to bring some closure."
The
SCO represents 34 Anishinaabe and Dakota communities in southern
Manitoba while MKO represents 26 First Nations in the province's north.
It's
believed somewhere between 11,000 and 20,000 children were removed from
their homes and placed with new families in Canada, the U.S.
and Europe.
Need to analyze numbers, effects of scoop
The estimates vary greatly because many children are believed to have not been recorded as status Indian in their child services records.
There
is a need to determine exactly how many children were taken, where they
were taken to and the longterm effects of the trauma they have
suffered, said Katherine Legrange, a scoop survivor who became the
founder and director of 60s Scoop Legacy of Canada, a peer support and
advocacy group based in Manitoba.
Katherine
Legrange is a scoop survivor and director of 60s Scoop Legacy of
Canada, a peer support and advocacy group based in Manitoba. (CBC)
"Our
parents and grandparents need to know that this was not their fault,
that this was a result of [government] policies," she said.
"This
was not our fault. We did nothing wrong as children. And so that's what I
really want to emphasize in this inquiry going forward."
Legrange
was taken just after birth from a Winnipeg hospital. By the time she
learned, as an adult, that her birth family was from Crane River, it was
too late to seek them out.
Both parents died before she turned 10, "so I'm still struggling to put the pieces of my birth story together," she said.
She has four siblings — one who died this past summer in Winnipeg of an overdose, and three who are reluctant to meet.
Sixties
Scoop survivor Teri Starr was taken from her family at three months
old. She said she was raised in a really good home but many of the other
adoptees cannot say that. (CBC)
"I was
told that was one of the reasons why I was scooped is because my parents
didn't love me, or that community didn't love me," said Teri Starr, who
was taken from her family in Sagkeeng First Nation at three months old.
"But
it was due to a policy and other peoples' hand that was able to scoop
the children. Those questions need to be asked: Why? Why was that all
right?"
Between two worlds
She said there is a feeling for
many adoptees of being untethered once they are made aware they were
part of the scoop. It's a feeling of being between two worlds and trying
to balance that out.
"You try to go back and learn your culture,
but that's been taken away. Where do you start and where do you go? Who
do you ask?" she said.
Starr said she was raised in a really good
home but still faced difficult question from herself and others as a
dark-haired, dark-skinned, dark-eyed girl in a family with light
features.
Now as she begins her search for the past, she faces difficulties in trying not to hurt those who adopted her, she said.
"I
want to respect the family that raised me, and I don't want to
disrespect them [by] going and trying to find my family, but that piece
is important to me as well," she said.
The siblings of a Métis man who has been missing for
decades – ever since he was captured as a child during a sixties scoop –
want to know why the Manitoba government keeps sending him requests for
address verification. The mail is mailed to the same house that the
province seized the kids more than 45 years ago.
“Even after all these years, when my parents are dead, the cards are still coming in the mail,” Sandra Myers said.
“Somebody know something.”
Their brother, Alex James Sutherland, was only five years old when
child welfare officials apprehended him, along with his six siblings,
from their Camperville, Manitoba, home in 1976.
It was part of the notoriously disastrous sixties scoop – in which
thousands of Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their homes
and placed with non-Indigenous families as far away as the US and Europe
during the period from 1951 to 1991.
They say that Alex and his siblings, including Sandra Myers, were captured
under false pretenses. Child welfare officials claimed that his father
drank heavily and abused the children.
Myers said, “I’m kind of surprised. I don’t remember there being any abuse.”
Sandra
Myers is shown in a photo from her Facebook page. She hopes that her
brother will reach out to his family. ‘If you can hear it, look me up on
Facebook,’ she says. ‘And know that I will not give up until I find
you.’ (Sandra Myers/Facebook)
Meanwhile, his mother thought the fears were temporary and agreed to
sign a document allowing child welfare officials to vaccinate the
children.
Instead, she signed away rights as a parent.
Sutherland’s sister Marge McGillivray said, “My mother couldn’t read
or write and they gave her a piece of paper and pen. She didn’t even
know she was signing us away.”
A curious clue
Three siblings, including Myers, were adopted in Louisiana. McGillivray remained in Manitoba, moving between foster homes until
reuniting with her parents as a teenager.
However, Alex Sutherland was never heard from again.
“I’ve heard from other people, but this one’s just gone,” McGillivray says.
In 2016, the siblings went public with their discovery, sharing their story with the CBC.
Through the years, as the story aired, so did the tips. Some
childhood friends arrive with memories of going to school with Alex in
Mafeking, Maine.
The siblings later heard rumors that Alex was in Thompson, Manitoba. Or Maine. Another time, he heard he might be in Alberta. Second time, Ontario.
Then, a few years ago, a curious clue turned up in his parents’ post office box.
The province began sending health card registration verifications
addressed to Alex James Sutherland – sent to his childhood home in
Camperville.
A
few years ago, the province began sending health card registration
verifications to Alex James Sutherland at his childhood home in
Camperville. (Submitted by Sandra Myers)
As of 2023, they’re still coming.
McGillivray said, “That’s why my mom and dad thought he was still alive and in Manitoba.”
Now, the family wants to know why a provincial department is sending
mail to Sutherland’s childhood home – and, as far as the province is
concerned, it was his last known address.
‘I’m not giving up hope’
In a written statement, a provincial spokesperson said that if a
person has not used their Manitoba health card in the past 12 months,
the province sends a verification notice to the last address on file,
“to ensure that his address is still current and there is no new change
in his health card,” the spokesperson said.
According to the spokesperson, if the notice is returned marked “return to sender”, the health card is suspended.
They would not elaborate on whether they would send verification for a health card that was inactive for more than 12 months.
“We are engaging in speculation here that we cannot comment on,” the emailed statement said.
Meanwhile, the Manitoba Métis Federation also has questions about Sutherland, and has offered to help the family find answers.
“The federation is pleased to be working with the family to get to
the bottom of this,” Francis Chartrand, vice-president of the Northwest
region, said in a written statement.
“It always saddens us when we learn of survivors of sixties scoops in our area who still haven’t gotten to their homes.”
The Metis Federation, through its Sixties Scoop department, can
provide the family with “wraparound programs and services tailored to
the needs of individual survivors,” Chartrand said.
Myers said she would be grateful for the federation’s support.
“If anything can help find him, I’d be glad,” she said.
“I never stop searching for him. I’m not giving up hope. I know he’s out there.”
She also had a message for her brother.
Myers says, “I’m reaching out to you and if you can hear
it, check me out on Facebook. And know that I will not give up until I
find you or know where you are.”
[This needs to be universal, and in America, too... Editor]
Manitoba bill would help ensure birth certificates reflect Indigenous names
By The Canadian Press | Nov. 17, 2022
WINNIPEG
- The Manitoba government is moving to ensure birth certificates can
better represent the names of Indigenous people and those of other
cultures.
A
bill now before the legislature would establish a wider range of
letters, characters and symbols beyond the traditional ones found in the
English and French languages.
The bill would also allow for single names, instead of first and last ones, in accordance with cultural practices.
Government
Services Minister Reg Helwer says the change will meet the needs of
residential school and ’60s Scoop survivors who want to reclaim their
birth names.
He says it will also serve Indigenous and other families who give their children traditional names connected to their culture.
The proposed changes would apply to name registrations for newborns and for people applying to legally change their names.
“Throughout
the residential school period, it was common for institutions to rename
children when they were enrolled, erasing traditional Indigenous names
to cut the ties a child had with their cultural identity and family,”
Indigenous Reconciliation Minister Alan Lagimodiere said in a press
release Thursday.
“The
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada called upon governments
to enable survivors to reclaim their birth names. This change would
allow us to take the first step toward implementing call to action
Number 17.“
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2022.
👇
Recognizing that Indigenous parents should have a right to name their
children according to the languages their ancestors carried for
millennia means treating them like human beings.
This was streamed LIVE on Wednesday May 12th 2021
Dr. Sinclair is Anishinaabe (St. Peter's/Little Peguis) and an Assistant Professor at the University of Manitoba.
Stewart
Garnett, 41, was adopted by a San Francisco family as a kid, but has
come back to Manitoba to try to retrace his heritage. (Erin Brohman/CBC)
Stewart Garnett
Stewart
Garnett was born in Winnipeg and is from Long Plain First Nation, but
he grew up in California after being adopted by a white family during
the Sixties Scoop.
Garnett said he struggled with questions of identity growing up and was frequently confused by the way people would label him. He returned to Manitoba about a week ago in attempt to regain a sense of his culture. "It's been rough. I see people who do know who they are and they're comfortable in their own skin, but me, no," he said. "You
try walking in the non-aboriginal world, you don't fit in; you try and
walk in the aboriginal world and you don't necessarily fit in, so you're
on this fence of 'Where do we fit in?'"
A Manitoba child welfare agency serving some of the poorest First
Nations in the country is in “chaos” following the political
intervention of chiefs who forced the temporary suspension of its
executive director, according to an internal source.
The source, who is not authorized to speak publicly, said there is
growing concern the actions by the four chiefs of the Island Lake Tribal
Council to temporarily push aside the Island Lake First Nations Family
Services agency’s executive director, Brenda Wood, has put children at
risk.
“I knock on wood every day so nothing happens. And if something
happens, who is it on?” said the source. “Is it on us and our
negligence?”
In mid-February, three of the four Island Lake Tribal Council
Chiefs—Garden Hill First Nation Chief Dino Flett, Red Sucker Lake Chief
Sam Knott, and St. Theresa Point Chief David McDougall—sent a letter to
the Island Lake Family Services board directing them to place Wood on
temporary paid leave and complete a report on her “management style.”
Tribal Council Chair and Wasagamack Chief Alex McDougall did not sign
the letter but supported the move.
The board, which is appointed by the chief and council of each of the
four communities, immediately complied despite supporting Wood’s
efforts to reform the agency. Wood was put on temporary leave and the
board took over management of the agency.
Now the agency is in complete turmoil, according to the source.
“It is really chaotic over there right now and it has been ever since
(Wood) left,” said the source. “There is a lot of confusion, a lack of
direction.”
Wood only became executive director of the agency in 2015 and faced a
monumental challenge. The agency, which serves a region afflicted by
the legacy of residential schools and deep poverty, has repeatedly been
found by provincial and federal reviews of failing to provide a proper
standard of child welfare care.
“She inherited a big mess,” said the source. “I have seen how this
place was run before, when everybody did what they wanted. It didn’t
seem like there was a lot of accountability…. This is why the new
executive director does what she does. She understands the severity.
People need to pull up their boots straps or get out of the way and let
somebody else who is willing to do their jobs, do their jobs.”
The agency is overseen by the First Nations of Manitoba Child and
Family Services Authority—also known as the Northern Authority which
said last week it was monitoring the situation.
A spokesperson for the Northern Agency said there were ongoing and
direct consultations with the Island Lake First Nations Family Services
agency. The spokesperson said a development on those consultations could
be announced within days.
The source said the chiefs moved against Wood because her efforts to
reform the agency led to the termination of several people, including
two who were politically connected. The source said Wood had also not
been given the opportunity to defend herself against the allegations
related to her management style.
“There is a real witch hunt out there for her, they just want her
gone,” said the source. “The real unfortunate thing about this too is
that she never had the opportunity to communicate any of this.”
Wood was trying to slowly reform the agency, said the source. One of
her main accomplishments since taking on the job was increasing special
needs assessments for children at risk in the four communities—the
agency also has a sub-office in Winnipeg.
“In the north, almost no kids had special needs assessments and those
assessments were not getting done,” said the source. “Just before she
was placed on leave, there was actually a person put there to
specifically do special needs assessment.”
Wood was also trying to create a program to put parents and their
children out on the land to do traditional activities and bond. She also
assigned an employee to work specifically on the project.
“I know she was really pushing hard to have this up and going
quickly—not in 10 years—she wanted this done properly and she wanted it
done quickly,” said the source. “I think the overall picture is children
and their parents would go there, there would be workers there. For
example, it’s a good opportunity for a father and his children to bond….
A lot would be about re-exploring the role of family members. I think
that has been really lost, one of the effects of colonization.”
Manitoba is set to apologize to aboriginals who
were taken from their parents decades ago and adopted into
non-aboriginal families. Premier Greg Selinger said the apology,
expected next week in the legislature, will acknowledge damage done to
those taken from their homes and their culture. Manitoba was one of the
provinces most affected, so it is appropriate that it be among the first
to apologize, he said.
Open Birth and Adoption Records
The Manitoba government is moving ahead with proposed legislation that will open birth and adoption records.
What Changes when the Legislation Passes?
The amendments to The Adoption Act and The Vital Statistics Act allow
for more openness with respect to birth records and adoption records,
subject to certain privacy rights. The amendments will give registered
birth parents and adult adoptees access to pre-adoption birth
registrations, as well as substituted registrations of birth.
The amendments will take effect one year after the legislation is
passed, likely in June 2015. This will allow time for people to
understand the changes and, most importantly, to file disclosure vetoes
if they wish to keep their information private.
Who do these amendments affect?
An adult adoptee born in Manitoba and adopted in Manitoba
An adult adoptee born in Manitoba and adopted outside Manitoba
An adult adoptee born outside Manitoba and adopted in Manitoba
A registered birth parent who is named on the pre-adoption birth
registration and whose adult child was born in Manitoba and adopted in
Manitoba
A registered birth parent who is named on the pre-adoption birth
registration and whose adult child was born in Manitoba and placed for
adoption outside Manitoba
Fee
There is no fee to access birth or adoption records.
Contact Manitoba Post Adoption Services
If you have any questions, please email or call the Manitoba Post-Adoption Registry at:
Manitoba Post-Adoption Registry 2nd Floor – 777 Portage Avenue
Winnipeg MB R3G 0N3 Email: cfsd@gov.mb.ca Phone: 204-945-6964
1-800-855-0511 for the Manitoba Relay Service
The Manitoba government appears set to further open adoption
records to allow more people to find relatives and learn about their
background.
Bob Pearson / Getty Images
WINNIPEG – The Manitoba government appears set to further open
adoption records to allow more people to find relatives and learn about
their background.
The province passed a law in 1999 to release
identifying information about adoptees and their parents unless one of
them specifically requested anonymity.
But the law was not retroactive, so people adopted prior to March 15, 1999, have had a tougher time finding information.
The province announced in 2009 that it was looking at making
available adoption records as far back as 1925 to bring Manitoba in line
with other provinces such as British Columbia.
The NDP government
has served notice that it will present a bill to the legislature
Wednesday (April 24) to open adoption and birth records, but government officials
would not reveal details beforehand.
Roy Kading, who runs an
adoptees rights group in Winnipeg, says thousands of people have been
trying to find out about their birth families.
“They’re very, very frustrated,” Kading said Tuesday.
“They’ve
been … looking for people for years and can’t get any information. By
the time they do, too bad, the person they’re looking for has passed
away.”
Kading said his non-profit group, Links Post-Legal Adoption Support, has helped reunite about 1,500 people over the years.
Just this week, the group helped two half-sisters find each other.
“One registered with us recently, and the half-sister had registered with us 10 years ago.”
One
hurdle for the government has been concern for privacy. Under the
pre-1999 system, parents who gave up their children for adoption were in
effect promised privacy. Any identifying information was kept secret
unless they specifically opted for it to be shared.
It’s been the
other way around since 1999. Information has been made available unless
there has been a specific request for privacy, formally called a
disclosure veto.
