Senator Mary Jane McCallum

Hon. Mary Jane McCallum: Honourable senators, I would like to pay tribute to the host families that billeted residential school students as we left the residential schools across Canada. The majority of students were placed in private homes in the towns and cities where we were to continue our high school. Most families didn’t know what we had undergone. I had the great privilege and luck to be placed in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Borland in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. I still keep in touch wit…

Honourable senators, I would like to pay tribute to the host families that billeted residential school students as we left the residential schools across Canada. The majority of students were placed in private homes in the towns and cities where we were to continue our high school. Most families didn’t know what we had undergone. I had the great privilege and luck to be placed in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Borland in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. I still keep in touch with my host family and came…

Hon. Mary Jane McCallum: Honourable senators, I rise today to speak on behalf of Grand Chief Arlen Dumas of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs with regard to the thirtieth anniversary of the federal government’s proclamation to end child poverty in Canada by 2000. As of January 2020, over 1,350,000 children in Canada continue to live in poverty, with Indigenous children disproportionately affected. The updated Campaign 2000 report notes that the national child poverty rate has decreased very slowl…

Hon. Mary Jane McCallum: Honourable senators, I am very pleased to speak to you today to raise awareness and to recognize November 2020 as the sixth anniversary of Indigenous Disability Awareness Month, or IDAM, in Canada. As you may be aware, Indigenous peoples in Canada experience a rate of disability significantly higher than that of the non-Indigenous population. Indigenous persons and families living with disabilities face unique barriers when trying to access disability-related services an…

Hon. Mary Jane McCallum: Honourable senators, today is the first day of Veterans’ Week, this year marking the seventy-fifth anniversary of the end of the Second World War. As such, I would like to remember and honour the legacy of Charles Richard Hawthorne, a veteran who served bravely in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. Born in Montreal in 1923, Mr. Hawthorne enlisted in the RCAF at age 17, lying about his age to meet the eligibility criteria. Trained as a P/O Navigator, he wa…

Hon. Mary Jane McCallum: Honourable senators, I give this statement on behalf of Wayne Mason, Executive Director of Wa-Say Healing Centre Inc. in Winnipeg, Manitoba. This organization helps Indian residential school survivors and their families to overcome the effects and trauma of the Indian residential school era. Wa-Say Healing Centre has a long history of providing support and assistance to the survivors of the IRS era and their families. Since the beginning, they have supported thousands i…

Hon. Mary Jane McCallum: Honourable senators, the following excerpts are taken from the prologue and message of the Grand Chief in a document called Wahbung: Our Tomorrows written by the Indian Tribes of Manitoba in 1971: The four Indian tribes of Manitoba — the Cree, Ojibway, Chipewyan and Sioux — by united effort through the Manitoba Indian Brotherhood, present to the Canadian people through their government our position on policies necessary to achieve a just and honourable and mutually sati…

Hon. Mary Jane McCallum: Honourable senators, It’s good to be back. I’m making a statement on behalf of Regional Chief Ghislain Picard. This is a message from the Assembly of First Nations, Québec/Labrador on racism and discrimination: I am a member of the Innu Nation of Eastern Quebec and Labrador. I have had the privilege of representing the First Nation leadership from ten different Nations, and these two jurisdictions, and I have for almost three decades now. The work from where I stand ha…

Honourable senators, I rise today to respond to a recently aired radio ad about the “myths” of residential school by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. I would like to briefly address and dispel the myths that this ad propagated. Myth No. 1: The average stay was less than five years, and the vast majority of Aboriginal youth never attended a residential school. Truth: Residential schools robbed me and many others from my reserve of our childhood, and most of the survivors that came from m…

Honourable senators, I rise today to speak to Inquiry No. 19. As the inquiry says, incarcerated Indigenous women are among the most marginalized citizens of Canada who all too often go without a voice and without adequate support systems. It is this group of women who are the most represented and the least taken care of when it comes to their presence in federal institutions across the country. The numbers are discouraging. In 2016, the Correctional Investigator of Canada indicated that, for th…