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Believe it or not, at the time, that was considered enlightened.

During hearings for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Cree novelist and pianist Tomson Highway testified, “There are many very successful people today that went to those schools … I have a thriving international career, and it wouldn’t have happened without that school. You have to remember that I came from so far north and there were no schools up there.”

But for saying pretty much what I have written above, Lynn Beyak has been suspended from Canada’s Senate.

Thankfully her suspension, which was approved by senators on Thursday, will be short-lived. Sen. Beyak will be without pay or use of Senate staff only until this current Parliament dissolves for the fall elections — three months or less.

But it’s not the cost to Beyak; it’s the principle.

If a senator can be punished for taking a politically incorrect stand about Indigenous Canadians, what’s next? Jailing people for questioning the orthodoxy of climate change? Suggesting that Islamic extremism is the greatest threat to Western security? Wondering aloud about the wisdom of open-borders refugee policy? Making fun of the prime minister for his costume-party tour of India? (A Radio-Canada comedy show actually got in trouble for mocking Trudeau’s Bollywood excursion.)

Technically, Beyak is being suspended for refusing to remove five letters from her Senate website that contain statements some consider racist. The letters are among 7,000 Beyak has received from ordinary Canadians supporting her assertion that we cannot blame all of the problems Indigenous Canadians face on residential schools, the last one of which closed 50 years ago.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde lauded the Senate’s censure for Beyak tweeting “There is no room for racism or discrimination anywhere in Canada, especially at decision-making tables.”