After decades of waiting, Sixties Scoop survivors are set to receive a formal apology from the Saskatchewan government Monday morning.
Premier Scott Moe will make the apology on behalf of the government at about 10 a.m. at the Saskatchewan Legislature in Regina.
Sixties Scoop Indigenous Society of Saskatchewan Co-Chair Robert Doucette says there is no doubt today is an historic one for the province.
“This province has never said sorry to any Aboriginal group in its 112-year history, this is a first,” he says. “I think this is a momentous day for all citizens of Saskatchewan because it’s a sign that we’re all trying to understand and reconcile the past and look forward as equal partners in the development of this province.”
At the same time, Doucette says although the apology is an important first step, it needs to be followed up by concrete action by the province.
“The apology needs to have some action attached to it. An example is in the TRC (Truth and Reconciliation Commission)’s recommendations, it says that one of the requirements of reconciliation is to lower the rates of Aboriginal kids being apprehended and put into care. And so a lot of the Sixties Scoop survivors are looking to hear what steps are going to be taken.”
In what has now become known as the Sixties Scoop, the provincial department of social services seized Indigenous children from their homes and placed them with non-Indigenous families from the late 1950’s and into the 1980’s.
These children were often stripped of their culture or any ties to their biological parents and siblings in the process.
(PHOTO: SSIS Co-Chair Robert Doucette. File photo.)