Senators visit Saskatchewan Penitentiary
The Senate’s Standing Committee on Aboriginal Peoples is visiting communities across the prairies to learn more about what a nation-to-nation relationship would mean to First Nation and Métis people.
Members of the Senate Standing Committee, including Chair Lillian Dyck, visited the Saskatchewan Penitentiary to learn what that relationship would look like for inmates and their families, and to learn more about the current conditions. Dyck said she and her fellow Senators were unsure of what to expect from the visit, though she said “forgotten people” was a common theme which has come up throughout their visits to prairie communities.
Dyck said one inmate asked the senators to address the issues which had put him in his current situation, including foster care and group homes, as well as drugs and alcohol.
“It’s like no matter what happens, all of these awful things happen,” Dyck said. “A big part of nation-to-nation would be erasing all of that and putting us all on equal footing.”