Mr. Speaker, I have spent the last few days reaching out to folks in my community. So many survivors and descendants of survivors have been re-traumatized. They have broken down and are struggling to deal with pain and grief.
One of the people I communicated with was Steven Crowchild, an incredible leader and human being, who told me about his friend who lived with her mother. She was going to put a teddy bear and orange shirt on the front steps to honour the babies who were lost. Her mother, who was a residential school survivor, was triggered and was fearful. She thought that having that orange shirt would get them attacked in their own home.
There is a legacy of genocide that still lives on today in the cycles of addiction and loss. The Canadian government still chooses to underfund children, fight children in court, fight residential school survivors and so many other examples of ongoing injustice.
Is this horrendous history and are our current failures a genocide? Will the member call this what it is? Will he call this a genocide?