Lynn Beyak added, then quickly removed, from Senate energy committee
In a reversal, Sen. Lynn Beyak has been removed from the Senate’s energy committee.
Beyak was given additional Senate duties Tuesday evening despite a pledge by the Senate Conservative leader to review her role in the Tory caucus after she made controversial comments about First Nations people.
Beyak was temporarily added as a member of the energy, environment and natural resources committee, but was struck from the list an hour after CBC News first reported she would be replacing Conservative Nova Scotia Sen. Michael MacDonald, who had been absent. The Senate confirmed Wednesday she had been added to the committee as a member with full standing.
The fracas comes after Sen. Larry Smith said last week he would take “additional steps to address Sen. Beyak’s ongoing role within our caucus.” Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has also said Beyak does not speak for his caucus, and she has “no role” in its affairs.
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Beyak is still a member of the Senate’s defence, transport and agriculture committees. When asked about her future on those committees, a spokesperson for Smith said he had no comment.
Beyak recently said, in an open letter on her website, that First Nations should trade in their status cards and become Canadian citizens, while calling on them to promote their culture “on their own dime, on their own time.”
The northwestern Ontario senator has also questioned the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which studied the residential school system, and defended “well-intentioned” teachers at the institutions. She has said she wants compensation for survivors, something the former Harper government instituted in 2007.
Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Perry Bellegarde said Wednesday Beyak should be shown the door.
“In this era of reconciliation there is no place for the kind of outdated and uninformed thinking expressed by Sen. Lynn Beyak,” Bellegarde said in a statement, his first since Beyak’s most recent comments emerged.
“Many have reached out to educate her and help her understand our shared history yet she refuses to acknowledge reality.
Bellegarde said Beyak’s comments were hurtful and disgraceful.
Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde says Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer should remove Lynn Beyak from caucus.
“She should resign, and if she won’t resign she should be expelled from caucus by the Conservative leader to demonstrate his party’s commitment to truth and reconciliation. There is no room for this kind of thinking in today’s Canada.”
On Tuesday, Crown-Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett called for Scheer to remove Beyak from his caucus.
Big city mayors, Indigenous leaders, senators, and other federal cabinet ministers (Mélanie Joly and Patty Hajdu), have also called on Beyak to either resign from the Red Chamber or be removed from committee work.
When asked Monday how he planned to appeal to Indigenous voters if she remains a member of his caucus, Scheer said Conservative values appeal to all Canadians regardless of ethnicity.
Completely agree. https://t.co/Wn28aAzPgY
Former interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose previously booted Beyak from Aboriginal Peoples committee, where she served for some three years studying Indigenous issues.
“The senator’s ongoing, offensive comments regarding Indigenous people are ill-informed, hurtful, and simply wrong,” Bennett said. “These disturbing views expressed by a sitting parliamentarian undermine progress toward reconciliation.”
Despite calls for her resignation, some of her Conservative caucus colleagues were rallying around Beyak Wednesday.
Sen. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu said Beyak should not be kicked out of caucus for “giving an opinion” and she “did not commit a crime.” Saskatchewan Conservative MP Brad Trost said Beyak is a “nice lady,” but conceded he hasn’t been closely following the controversy.
“Her heart’s usually in the right place, so I give benefit of the doubt,” he said.
Ontario Conservative MP Tony Clement said he didn’t want to talk about Beyak, but rather focus on the Liberal government’s changes to the small business tax regime.
Article source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/beyak-senate-committee-1.4298801?cmp=rss