Saskatchewan’s NDP Opposition is accusing the government of playing politics when it comes to Sixties Scoop survivors.
After a question in the Legislature Wednesday, Social Services Minister Paul Merriman implied if the NDP was truly interested in Sixties Scoop survivors, opposition members would have attended sharing circles held around the province last fall.
NDP Leader Ryan Meili says the statement is ridiculous because the opposition would have been happy to attend the circles but they weren’t invited.
“Well the truth is we weren’t invited to their sharing circles, we weren’t asked to come,” he says. “I would have been happy to. When we were informed about them by some of the people involved in the society, we then heard later that they got in trouble from the government. They didn’t want any opposition around these events.”
Merriman says the government had no say in who could attend the circles and the NDP could have attended had they wanted to.
“What I said was none of the members participated in the talking circles,” he says. “There was one MLA from Regina that did attend the event but didn’t sit in the talking circles and that’s where we heard some of the very tragic stories.”
Merriman made the comments after the NDP asked about what the government is doing in terms of a report of recommendations issued at the conclusion of the sharing circles.
Meili says the government needs to act on the recommendations now rather than later.
In particular, he says with an Aug. 31 deadline looming to apply to be part of a federal compensation package, the province needs to set up a task force to assist survivors in getting any records they may need.
Merriman says his office is more than happy to assist individual survivors in obtaining records and meeting any federal government deadlines.
With files by Dan Jones.
(PHOTO: Saskatchewan NDP Leader Ryan Meili. File photo.)