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Summary
Grand Chief Arlen Dumas of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs has extended an invitation to Nations and allies to co-host walks to honor mothers and grandmothers who have lost their children to the Child Welfare Systems.
The Bringing Our Children Home Grandmothers Walk will be held Friday, May 10 at 10 a.m. Central Standard Time.
Calling it a Mother’s Day campaign day of action and speaking against Bill C-92, the new child welfare legislation going through the House of Commons, Dumas says the Bringing Our Children Home Grandmothers Walk will send a clear message to Ottawa “that we have had enough of our children being removed from our families, homes and Nations.”
Dumas said in a video address that Bill C-92 “does not respect who we are as people.”
It doesn’t benefit First Nations in Manitoba for many reasons, including because it was not developed in consultation with them. Nor did it receive their consent. It harmonizes First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples into one piece of legislation. It fails to honor the treaty relationship with the Crown. And it doesn’t respect regional approaches.
“The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs does not support the proposed Bill C-92,” Dumas said.
“Our children are sacred and loaned to us by the Creator to love and raise in our traditional way of life.”
He said First Nations have had their own ways to raise their children from time immemorial, but these ways have been “interrupted by colonization, assimilation and genocide.”
Dumas said it’s time to break the cycle.
To watch the video, go to https://www.facebook.com/AssemblyMBChiefs/videos/839571409752326/?v=839571409752326