OTTAWA – Conservative Sen. Lynn Beyak says her party’s decision to sanction her for comments about Canada’s residential school history amounts to a “serious threat to freedom of speech.”
Beyak said in a statement released Thursday afternoon that political correctness is stifling opinion and thoughtful conversation and that a silent majority of Canadians agree with her comments.
“Too often, on a broad range of issues, a vocal minority cries foul and offence whenever a point of view is raised that does not align with their own,” Beyak’s statement read.
“Meanwhile the silent majority, who are contributing to this country by working, building and selling things, taking care of their parents and children, are left thinking they are alone. To those Canadians I say you are not alone.”
WATCH: NDP calls for Sen. Beyak to resign amid residential school scandal
Early last month, in a speech focused on highlighting the need to track federal spending on indigenous issues, Beyak said “good deeds” came out of Canada’s residential schools.
Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission spent six years examining the legacy of the government-funded, church-operated schools, infamous hotbeds of abuse and mistreatment that operated from the 1870s to 1996.
The senator’s comments touched off a firestorm inside and outside the upper chamber that divided her own caucus, which ultimately decided to remove her from the Senate committee on Aboriginal Peoples.
READ MORE: Senator who defended residential schools urged to leave committee
Beyak said in her statement that she believes this experience has revealed to her how difficult it is to have a “balanced, truthful discussion about all issues affecting Canadians.”
WATCH: Canadian senators behaving badly, again
*With files from Global News
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