Liberals Make Boarding School Pledge

Liberals Make Boarding School Pledge

Friday, March 14, 2008 at 16:39

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion says a Liberal government “would immediately work with the Province of Saskatchewan to provide urgent compensation to the survivors” of two northern Saskatchewan boarding schools.

Dion says the Conservatives’ decision not to include the survivors of the Timber Bay and Ile-a-la-Crosse residential schools in the compensation agreement “demonstrates a lack of fairness that must be corrected”.

The Liberal statement comes just days before a federal by-election in northern Saskatchewan that the party hopes Joan Beatty will win.

Beatty says she has no shortage of motivation to see this through, since she’s a former resident of the Timber Bay school herself.

She adds she wasn’t abused while at the school, but she almost lost her ability to speak Cree.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been roundly criticized by Metis leaders for not keeping an election promise two years ago to compensate the Ile-a-la-Crosse survivors.