Despite all parties seeming to agree that what took place in Canada\u0027s residential school system was odious and wrong, we are seeing very little action taken to…
Yet I have difficulty classifying residential schools as “schools.” Parents send their children to school every day and they return home safe and unscathed. Children in residential schools did not know when, or if, they would return home. The fortunate children who did, returned with a myriad of issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is urging Catholics to demand action from their churches. Trudeau said he asked Pope Francis to commit to the release of residential school records and to issue a formal apology. To date, the church has not delivered on any of these requests. Though it passed with unanimous support, 64 Liberals — including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller and Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett — abstained from the vote. These voices claim solidarity with Indigenous people, but their actions are showing otherwise.
Now let us look at the other party involved and the response from Pope Francis. On Twitter, he wrote, “I join the Canadian Bishops and the whole Catholic Church in Canada in expressing my closeness to the Canadian people, who have been traumatised by shocking discovery of the remains of two hundred and fifteen children, pupils at the Kamloops Indian Residential School.”
There was also an interesting response from Cardinal Thomas Collins, the archbishop of Toronto, who, though he acknowledged the “residential school system was a terrible thing,” took aim at Trudeau, saying his remarks about the church were “unhelpful” and the government should “step up” and take responsibility.
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