Survivors of the Sixties Scoop want a government investigation and an apology.

Former Canadian Senator Murray Sinclair and a group representing Sixties Scoop survivors are calling for a federal inquiry into the actions and policies of governments that resulted in thousands of Indigenous children being removed from their homes and placed with non-Indigenous families over a four-decade period.

"There have been studies on the Sixties Scoop, but we haven't really looked into how far-reaching the impacts truly are," said Katherine Legrange, volunteer co-ordinator of the 60s Scoop Legacy of Canada. According to Legrange, a plaintiff in one of the survivors' cases, an investigation is required to obtain a comprehensive accounting of the number of children abducted and the effects on the lives of survivors and their families.

Sinclair, who chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, stated that many of the issues confronting Indigenous families that led to their children's detention originated from the legacy of decades of the residential school system. "The children who were removed deserve to know they are not alone, but they also need to know there were reasons for what happened that were not their parents' fault,"  he said in a statement.

The organization wants to meet with federal Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett to discuss an inquiry, as well as a national apology and a payment for Métis and non-status survivors who were left out of a 2017 class-action settlement. The settlement agreement in Canada set aside $750 million to pay First Nations and Inuit children who were removed from their homes and put with non-Indigenous foster or adoptive parents between 1951 and 1991, resulting in the loss of their cultural identities.

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