A Conservative Canadian lawmaker has apologised for a hurtful remark he made about aboriginal people on the same day Canada's prime minister offered a historic apology to the community.
Pierre Poilievre said his comments that native people need to learn the value of hard work more than they need residential schools compensation were hurtful and wrong. "I accept responsibility for them and I apologise," he said.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Wednesday apologised to native Canadians for the government's past practice of taking aboriginal children from their families and forcing them to attend state-funded Christian "residential schools" meant to assimilate them. Many of the students were abused.
Poilievre, who is a member of Harper's Tory government, questioned the value of compensation for former students of residential schools on an Ottawa radio show Wednesday, just hours before Harper delivered the apology in Parliament.
These policies, practiced from the 19th century until the 1970s, required more than 150,000 Indian children to attend state-funded Christian schools. They were often physically and sexually abused at these schools, and forced to abandon their language and culture.
The aboriginal community won a $C5 billion ($NZ6.6 billion) class action settlement in 2006 -- the largest in Canadian history -- between the government, churches and the 90,000 surviving students.
Under the settlement, students who attended residential schools are eligible to receive $C10,000 for the first school year and $C3,000 for every year after. Victims of physical and sexual abuse are eligible for more on top of that.
Richard Jock, chief executive officer of the Assembly of First Nations secretariat, called Poilievre's comments "tremendously insensitive. . . on such a historic occasion."
"His comments seriously detract from the words of his own prime minister and are hurtful to all the survivors and children that came to hear the apology. We hope the prime minister deals with this appropriately." Canada's Liberal opposition party said the remarks were shocking and called for Poilievre's resignation.
Harper rebuffed those calls and said Poilievre has also apologized to national aboriginal groups.
Native leaders called Harper's apology a pivotal moment for Canada's more than 1 million Indians, who remain the country's poorest and most disadvantaged group. There are more than 80,000 surviving students.
