'We're not going to be powerless': Sixties Scoop survivors in Saskatoon join national day of solidarity

A Sixties Scoop survivor who has been vocal against a proposed federal settlement spoke loud and clear at a rally in Saskatoon Friday.

The city was among nine in Canada to take part in a national day of solidarity called for by the National Indigenous Survivors of Child Welfare Network.

Robert Doucette, a former Métis Nation-Saskatchewan president, is among an estimated 20,000 Indigenous children who were forcibly removed from their families and adopted into non-Indigenous homes from the late 1950s through the 1980s.

He said he grew up not knowing he lived only two blocks from his father, or that school photos pictured both Doucette and a brother.

"It never seems to end, you know. They took our kids away in the residential schools and we were powerless. They came a second time and took our kids away during the Sixties Scoop and we were powerless to do anything. And it's now the millenium scoop, they're going through it again. Well we're not going to be powerless," he said.

Métis Nation-Saskatchewan Senator Nora Cummings said she has a sibling who lost their children in the Sixties Scoop.

"We had to stand by and watch them take our children out of the arms of the mothers and the grandmothers and the grandfathers and for us it's important because Métis always seems to be the forgotten and we're not going to let this happen because we too suffered," she said.

Doucette has launched several challenges of the upcoming settlement. The first is a human rights complaint saying the federal government is discriminating against Métis people.

The second action is a lawsuit against Ottawa and the Saskatchewan government for damages and recognition.

Not all Saskatchewan victims of the Sixties Scoop ended up getting adopted within Canada. CBC podcast Missing and Murdered: Finding Cleo explores the disappearance of a girl who was taken from her mother's Saskatchewan home and adopted into the United States.