'We're not going to be powerless': Sixties Scoop survivors in Saskatoon join national day of solidarity - Action News
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Saskatoon

'We're not going to be powerless': Sixties Scoop survivors in Saskatoon join national day of solidarity

A Sixties Scoop survivor who has been vocal against a proposed federal settlement spoke loud and clear at a rally in Saskatoon on Friday.

Calls for empathy and understanding made at rally

Drumming and smudging were among the cultural components of the rally. (Matthew Garand/CBC)

A Sixties Scoop survivor who has been vocal against a proposed federal settlement spoke loud and clear at a rally in Saskatoon Friday.

The city was among nine in Canada to take part in a national day of solidarity called for by the National Indigenous Survivors of Child Welfare Network.
People gather at the Saskatoon Sixties Scoop rally as part of a national day of solidarity. (Matthew Garand/CBC)

Robert Doucette, a former Mtis Nation-Saskatchewan president, is among an estimated 20,000 Indigenous children who were forcibly removed from their families and adopted into non-Indigenous homes from the late 1950s through the 1980s.

He said he grew up not knowing he livedonly two blocks from his father, or that school photos pictured both Doucette and a brother.
Robert Doucette (brown jacket) and Metis Nation-Saskatchewan Senator Nora Cummings (red blanket) are among those whose families were separated by the Sixties Scoop. (Matthew Garand/CBC)

"It never seems to end, you know. They took our kids away in the residential schools and we were powerless. They came a second time and took our kids away during the Sixties Scoop and we were powerless to do anything. And it's now the millenium scoop, they're going through it again. Well we're not going to be powerless," he said.

He and other survivors oppose the exclusion of Mtis people from the $800-million class-action settlement and say not enough consultation was done before the settlement details were announced. Doucette said it feels like the government is rushing the settlement.

Mtis Nation-Saskatchewan Senator Nora Cummings said she has a sibling who lost their children in the Sixties Scoop.

"We had to stand by and watch them take our children out of the arms of the mothers and the grandmothers and the grandfathers and for us it's important becauseMtis always seems to be the forgotten and we're not going to let this happen because we too suffered," she said.
Robert Doucette didn't see his mother Dianne Ludwig for 18 years after he was taken away in the Sixties Scoop. (Courtesy Robert Doucette)

Doucette has launched several challenges of the upcoming settlement. The first is a human rights complaint saying the federal government is discriminating against Mtis people.

The second action is a lawsuit against Ottawa and the Saskatchewan government for damages and recognition.

Not all Saskatchewan victims of the Sixties Scoop ended up getting adopted within Canada.CBC podcast Missing and Murdered: Finding Cleoexplores the disappearance of a girl who was taken from her mother's Saskatchewan home and adopted into the United States.