Lynn Beyak

Career

A business owner in Dryden, Ontario, Beyak worked in insurance and real estate. She co-owned General Motors dealerships with her late husband in Dryden and Fort Frances. Beyak was previously a candidate for the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party in the Ontario provincial elections of 1995 and 1999, and has served on the Fort Frances-Rainy River board of education. She was appointed to the Senate of Canada in 2013. One of her first notable acts was to be one of the first Conservative senators to support the suspensions of fellow Conservative senators Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin, and Patrick Brazeau because of their ethical indiscretions.

Beyak is critical of the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that the Canadian Indian residential school system was plagued with systemic physical, mental, and sexual abuse and directly resulted in the death of 6000 children from malnutrition and disease. Beyak said that those findings overshadowed the "good deeds" of "well-intentioned" residential school workers, such as converting some of the students to Christianity. Beyak's statement was repudiated by New Democratic Party Indigenous Affairs critic and residential school survivor Romeo Saganash, who called on her to resign for praising a system that amounted to cultural genocide, as defined by the United Nations; Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs and Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett, who called for better education on the subject matter; and Conservative Indigenous Affairs critic Cathy McLeod, who said that Beyak's praise did not reflect the views of the party, which under former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, had made a formal apology for the residential schools. Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde also criticized the statement for defending a system that had deep negative effects on Aboriginal peoples in Canada. Beyak would later attack criticism of her speech as fake news. However, Beyak's thoughts were deemed out of line with the Conservative party's history on the subject matter by the party's interim leader Rona Ambrose, who stated it was untenable for her to keep her position on the Aboriginal people's committee due to the misalignment of Beyak's comments. On April 5, 2017, Beyak was removed from her Aboriginal people's committee Senate post.

After the Canadian government reorganized the Indian Affairs department August 28, 2017, forming two departments, for Indigenous and Northern Affairs and separately for Indigenous Services, each under its own minister, Sen. Beyak made another public statement: "Let’s stop the guilt and blame and find a way to live together and share. Trade your status card for a Canadian citizenship, with a fair and negotiated payout to each Indigenous man, woman and child in Canada, to settle all the outstanding land claims and treaties, and move forward together . . . All Canadians are then free to preserve their cultures in their own communities, on their own time, with their own dime. The emphasis should be on individual prosperity and responsibility, with more money in the pockets of the local people, and not just national leaders and bureaucracies." According to Saskatoon StarPhoenix columnist Doug Cuthand, her comments indicated ignorance of history, as the indigenous peoples of Canada were extended Canadian citizenship in 1951. The mayors of Edmonton, Alberta and Winnipeg, Manitoba have called on her to resign.

Personal life

She married Tony Beyak on November 28, 1970 and they remained married until his death on April 8, 2002. They have two sons.