Hon. Chantal Petitclerc: My question is for the Government Representative in the Senate.

Senator Gold, my question is once again on forced adoptions. I hope this is the last time I will have to ask this question.

Senator Gold, you have surely heard that last week, Scotland officially apologized to thousands of its citizens whose babies were taken from them and put up for forced adoption between 1950 and 1970.

We know, and it has been often said, that official apologies cannot fix the mistakes of the past, but everyone agrees that they are the first steps in a healing process for the women struggling with lifelong trauma.

Last week, I was talking to one of these victims, and she said the following:

[English]

“Tell them to hurry up. I’m not getting any younger.”

[Translation]

I have asked this question many times and I will not stop asking it. Like these women, I will never accept the response that adoption is a provincial jurisdiction, when the report of the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology was very clear in 2018 and outlined the responsibility of the federal government.

Will Canada finally follow the example of other Commonwealth countries such as Australia and Ireland, and now Scotland, and officially apologize to the more than 300,000 Canadian women and their children for the way they were treated for years and years?