THUNDER BAY – A divided city council has reversed course and unanimously voted to condemn comments made by Senator Lynn Beyak about residential schools and the citizenship of Indigenous people.
But it took an emotionally charged, heated hour-long, circular discussion to get there.
It also meant tossing out Coun. Shelby Ch’ng’s motion to support the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association’s call for Beyak to resign after earlier this year saying some good came out of the residential school system and that Canada’s Indigenous people should trade in their status cards for citizenship cards.
An amendment, brought forward by McIntyre Coun. Trevor Giertuga, removed the resignation request in favour of condemnation of Beyak’s remarks.
“It’s a slippery slope,” Giertuga said in asking for the amendment, adding if approved, Ch’ng’s motion could lead to similar motions calling for the resignations of other politicians being placed in front of council each and every week.
Ch’ng, who was absent three weeks ago when her original motion lost on a 6-6 tie, initially sought a re-vote on it while the minutes for that meeting were being approved at Monday night’s city council gathering.
She was furious when the amendment hit the floor, adamant it did not send a strong enough statement to Beyak and the rest of the country.
“This is the stand we need to take for our community, while we’re pulling bodies out of the river,” Ch’ng said, referring to the recent deaths of three Indigenous youth pulled from Thunder Bay waterways.
The sticking point for several opponents of her original motion was whether or not it was council’s place to call for the resignation of any political leader.
Mayor Keith Hobbs said that’s the precise reason he did not support it three weeks earlier, adding his vote against the original resolution was not an endorsement of racism and councillors shouldn’t be bullied into voting for something they don’t fully support.
It’s just not council’s place, he said.
“Where does it stop?” Hobbs asked.
He bristled at suggestions the city was being racist in not asking for Beyak to resign.
“I don’t think this city needs to defend its relationship with its Indigenous people,” said Hobbs, who later got into a heated exchange with Coun. Iain Angus, when the latter said he was embarrassed at the process that brought council back into the debate.
“We have no business wading into this territory.”
Ch’ng pleaded her case again as the debate wrapped its way around the council table.
“This is a prime example of what (systemic) racism looks like,” she said. “This was a symbolic gesture. The system is folding in on itself.”
The amendment passed 7-6, with Giertuga, Larry Hebert, Rebecca Johnson, Brian McKinnon, Linda Rydholm, Joe Virdiramo and the mayor voting to pass it.
The new motion then passed 13-0.
Hobbs said his office will send copies of the decision to higher levels of government, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
