Woman recounts horrific memories from Sixties Scoop before historic aboriginal lawsuit

Marcia Brown Martel was just four years old when she forcibly taken from her home in Temagami First Nation, near Kirkland Lake by child welfare officials and adopted by a non-native family. She was one of an estimated 16,000 native children in Ontario who suffered a similar fate from 1965 to 1984.

The practice came to be known as the Sixties Scoop and Martel said the impact of it has been devastating to her life.

“I was suicidal from the time I was seven,” she said. “I don’t mean every now and then… until I was in my 20’s I was suicidal every single day.”

Martel is the lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit that started in February 2009 and claims the federal and provincial governments had an agreement to remove native children from their families and place them with non-native families.

Their unproven claim alleges the children suffered a devastating loss of cultural identity that Canada failed to protect.

The children, the suit states, suffered emotional, psychological and spiritual harm from the lost connection to their aboriginal heritage.

The lawsuit is seeking $1.6 billion in various damages, roughly $100,000 for each affected person.

Martel says it’s not about the money but sending a message so it never happens to another child.

“I lost everything, including my name. I lost my family. I lost my language. I lost everything about my culture,” she said. “This should never have happened. It was wrong.”

Hundreds are expected to rally tomorrow outside Osgoode Hall courthouse as the case gets underway.