The Conservatives Kicked a Senator Out of Caucus for Publishing Racist Letters

Conservative Senator Lynn Beyak has been kicked out of the party’s caucus for publishing racist letters defending residential schools on her individual senator website.

Beyak has previously said “remarkable works” that came out of the residential school system responsible for the deaths of thousands of Indigenous children are often “overshadowed by negative reports.” She has posted around 100 letters from Canadians who support residential schools to her senate website.

One letter claims other minority groups in Canada were likely “envious of the pampered aboriginals [sic] that got free school, free food, free housing and that still wasn’t good enough.” It goes on to say “it seems every opportunistic culture, subsistence hunter/gatherers seek to get what they can for no effort.”

In a statement issued Thursday, Conservative party leader Andrew Scheer said “to suggest that Indigenous Canadians are lazy compared to other Canadians, is simply racist." He said he demanded Beyak remove the offensive content from her website but she refused.

“As a result of her actions, the Conservative Senate Leader Larry Smith and I have removed Senator Lynn Beyak from the Conservative National Caucus.” Conservative Party spokesman Jake Enwright tweeted that Beyak was fired over her actions, not as a result of her refusal to remove the posts. He said the party was made aware of the letters two days ago, despite the fact that it’s been the source of social media backlash for at least a week.

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh called for Beyak’s resignation.

“Senator Beyak’s attempts to justify her racist comments on residential schools are disgusting. She has once again failed to live up to basic ethical standards as a senator. I call on all leaders to stand up & demand her resignation,” he tweeted Thursday.

In 2008, former Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued an apology for the residential school system, which stripped Indigenous children from their homes in an attempt to assimilate them and exposed them to widespread physical and sexual abuse. However, the apology did not include five schools in Newfoundland and Labrador. In November, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued an apology to former students of those five schools, saying “The kind of thinking that led to the establishment of the residential school system and left deep scars for so many has no place in our society. It was unacceptable then and it is unacceptable now.”

Canada operated around 130 residential schools with approximately 150,000 students in total.

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