I was wrong about natives, Tory MP says

Hard work, not cash, solution for reserves, Ottawa MP said

Juliet O'Neill, Canwest News Service Published: Friday, June 13, 2008
National Post

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper was on the defensive yesterday over the remarks of a Conservative MP who undermined his historic apology to aboriginals by questioning payments survivors of residential schools are eligible to receive under a compensation settlement.

Ottawa MP Pierre Poilievre expressed regret for his "hurtful and wrong" comments in a statement delivered just moments before Question Period. His brief apology had little impact on Liberal MPs who demanded he step down as parliamentary secretary to the president of the Treasury Board.

Mr. Poilievre questioned the "value" of compensation payments to natives and suggested they need to work harder rather than receive more money. He appeared unaware the $1.9-billion settlement is the result of years of negotiations aimed at reducing and containing a growing number of lawsuits over the mistreatment, including widespread physical and sexual assaults, of several generations of aboriginal children.

Liberal Tina Keeper, an aboriginal MP from northern Manitoba, branded Mr. Poilievre "a national embarrassment" and said she had received more calls from constituents on his remarks than she had about the Prime Minister's request for forgiveness for the assimilation policies of the residential school program. "I'm dumbfounded," she told reporters.

On a day Mr. Harper may have expected to bask in his widely praised apology, he wound up explaining that Mr. Poilievre had apologized for his comments, had contacted national aboriginal associations and was supportive of the government's historic apology -- "something that aboriginal people in this country have been waiting a very long time for."

Aboriginal MP Todd Russell, a Liberal from Labrador, said Mr. Poilievre's remarks were sad and hurtful. "Referring to the residential school settlement, he said, 'Some of us are starting to ask are we really getting value for this money.' " Mr. Russell told the Commons. "But how do we place a value on a stolen child? Just two hours later the Prime Minister stated: 'There is no place in Canada for the attitudes that inspired the residential school system to ever again prevail.' "

Mr. Poilievre made his remarks in an interview on CFRA radio just a few hours before Mr. Harper delivered his apology. He told a talk-show there is too much power concentrated in the hands of the leadership on native reserves "and it makes you wonder where all of this money is going." He exaggerated the cost of the settlement, worth $1.9-billion, that provides $10,000 cash payments to former residential school residents and extra funds for thousands who were physically or sexually abused.

"Now along with this apology comes another $4-billion in compensation for those who partook in the residential schools over those years,'' Mr. Poilievre said. "Now, you know, some of us are starting to ask: 'Are we really getting value for all of this money, and is more money really going to solve the problem?' My view is that we need to engender the values of hard work and independence and self reliance. That's the solution in the long run -- more money will not solve it."

Yesterday, he rose in the House to say his comments were wrong. "[Wednesday], on a day when the House and all Canadians were celebrating a new beginning, I made remarks that were hurtful and wrong. I accept responsibility for them and I apologize."