'Let's Sack Beyak': Lakehead University event in Thunder Bay, Ont. calls for Senator's resignation

Students at the Lakehead University campus in Thunder Bay, Ont. gathered together on Wednesday afternoon to host a day of action and show their support for the resignation of Sen. Lynn Beyak.

Members of the Lakehead University Student Union and the Lakehead University Native Students Association hosted the event titled, "Let's Sack Beyak," with guest speakers like Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler speaking to the importance of eliminating hate speech and racism in Canada.

"As a union, as a community, the students who are affected by residential schools are in our classrooms, they are in our community," Student Union Vice President of Advocacy, Lindsey Kelly explained, "and for us not to say anything is almost a bigger travesty because I do have the power to use my platform to talk about how not okay it is."

Beyak has been under fire for defending the residential school system and was kicked out of the Conservative caucus in January, 2018 after she refused to remove comments described as racist posted to her Senate website.

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Earlier this month, Chief Alvin Fiddler and Grand Council Treaty 3 Chief Ogichidaa Francis Kavanaugh launched a nation-wide campaign and website, beyakresign.ca, and called on organizations, residents and leaders in northwestern Ontario to sign a petition that demands Beyak's resignation.

During Wednesday's event, Fiddler said he's glad to see Lakehead University students promoting the movement.

"There's no room in this country for hatred and racism," Fiddler said, and "it's not about free speech, it's about hate speech...and for [the Senator] to continue to use [the website] as a platform is just simply unacceptable."

He said the online petition has roughly 4,400 signatures with many more on paper.

"It's the young people in this country that will create a better future for all of us," Fiddler said, and "I think our target is to have at least 5,000 signatures by the end of this campaign."

Turning negativity into something positive

For Tannis Kastern, the event is more than just a forum where students talk about the issues surrounding Beyak's comments about Indigenous people and residential schools.

As the president of Lakehead University's Native Students Association, Kastern said she believes it's important to stay away from the negativity and focus on the survivors and victims of the residential school system.

"We wanted to let the student body know that we aware of what's going on...and also acknowledge the students that'll never get a chance to go to post-secondary institutions like this [because] they didn't make it home to their families," Kastern said.

She said while knowledge is power, building relationships among one another is also power, which why when she heard about Fiddler's call to sign the petition, she wanted to organize an event to show that the students of Lakehead University support the movement.

"It's not about her, it's about them, and them meaning the ones who never came home," Kastern added.