For Immediate Release
18 May, 2022
NL NDP MHA for Torngat Mountains Lela Evans speaking this morning to Labrador Morning referenced the pain and trauma caused to Indigenous survivors as a result of residential schools across Labrador. In her comments, the Torngat Mountains MHA spoke about “Southern Labrador” referencing geographical areas of Labrador. MHA Evans is painfully aware of the trauma caused to local residents by the Cartwright Residential School. She would like to apologize if there were people who felt overlooked during her interview. It was not her intention to minimize the experience of the local residents of the Cartwright area. They share the same history, and are due the same reconciliation owed to all survivors of residential schools.
“It is important for all of us advocating for survivors to make sure that survivors of residential schools be heard, and justice be served to them,” said Evans. “Six communities in my district were directly impacted by residential schools, I will always advocate for their stories to be heard as well as those survivors from outside of my district, like the survivors from the residential school in Cartwright, Labrador,” Evans said today.
“I apologize if my comments in the media this morning made any survivor feel overlooked or unseen. That was not my intention, but it was deeply important to me to make sure I apologized, clarified my position, and commit to continue to be an advocate for Indigenous issues across our province.”
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For further information, contact Stephanie Curran, Media Relations Manager, NDP Caucus at (o) 709.330.0328 or (e) stephaniecurran@gov.nl.ca