Nickel Belt News Volume 62 • Issue 14
Friday, April 8, 2022
Thompson, Manitoba
Serving the Norman Region since 1961
Pope apologizes to Indigenous Peoples for Catholics’ role in Canada’s residential school system
Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church, apologized April 1 to Indigenous representatives from Canada for Catholics’ role in the country’s residential school system, which forcibly removed Indigenous children from their homes. The apology came after the pope met with representative of First Nations from Canada March 31, having held an audience earlier in the week with delegates appearing on behalf of Inuit and Métis people in Canada. “For the deplorable conduct of those members of the Catholic Church, I ask for God’s forgiveness and I want to say to you with all of my heart: I am very sorry,” Francis was reported to have said by Vatican News. “And I join my brothers, the Canadian bishops, in asking your pardon. “It is chilling to think of determined efforts to instil a sense of inferiority, to rob people of their cultural identity, to sever their roots, and to consider all the personal and social effects that this continues to entail: unresolved
Thompson Citizen photo courtesy of Vatican News Pope Francis, head of the Roman Catholic Church, apologized April 1 to delegates representing Indigenous Peoples from Canada for Catholics’ role in the residential school system. traumas that have become intergenerational traumas.” The pope also said that he would pay a visit to Canada to reiterate the church’s apology,. No date for the visit has been set, though Francis said it would not be during winter. The legacy of Canada’s residential school system, which was run by the federal government in partnership with churches and had the express goal of “killing the Indian in the child,” was
brought back into focus by the discovery last spring of unmarked graves outside a former residential school in Kamloops and at other residential school sites after that. Manitoba Indigenous leaders welcomed the papal apology as a first step on the road toward healing and reconciliation. “An apology from the pope in response to the role the Catholic Church had in the residential
school system has been a day that many survivors have been waiting for,” said Garrison Settee, grand chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, which represents 26 Northern Manitoba First Nations. “This is a historical, overwhelming, and even surprising event. Our hearts are with the delegates who travelled to Rome to make presentations on behalf of First Nations citizens in Manitoba. We thank you
for carrying out this difficult work and our prayers are with you. Receiving an apology from Pope Francis is nothing short of miraculous. This apology opens the door for many people to truly begin the process of real healing.” Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs acting Grand Chief Eric Redhead said the pope apologizing was historic moment marked by sorrow and hope. “More than 150,000 children were stolen from their homes and forced to attend residential schools between the 1880s and 1996: a number still raw to hear in the midst of this apology and the thousands of unmarked graves being discovered. I note the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 calls to action included a papal apology. This is but one call to action moving First Nations forward and I encourage everyone to continue to heed those calls. I further applaud the delegation that attended Rome to ensure this apology was given. I especially applaud the delegation from Manitoba and the strength, courage and leadership they
brought on behalf of First Nations.” The AMC represents 62 First Nations in Manitoba. Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson and Alan Lagimodiere, the province’s Indigenous reconciliation and northern relations minister, also commented on the apology. “The apology from Pope Francis acknowledges the tragedies of the past,” they said in an emailed statement. “However, so much more work needs to be done. It is imperative that as a country we listen, learn and support the healing needed to address the intergenerational trauma caused by the residential school system. “Our government is committed to working collaboratively with residential school survivors, families, Indigenous leadership and communities, elders and knowledge keepers to support the very important and necessary process of truth-telling and healing that will collectively help us move toward reconciling these historical wrongs and ensuring this never happens again.”
Indigenous control of CFS about keeping kids from ‘harm and abuse,’ says MKO chief BY DAVE BAXTER
LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER, WINNIPEG SUN
The chief of a First Nation that was the first in Canada to take back control of its Child and Family Services (CFS) under a new federal bill spoke in Winnipeg on March 30 about what Manitoba First Nations must now do to regain control over their child welfare systems. And he made it clear that when Indigenous communities seek control of those systems, it should be them and not provincial or federal governments that are taking the lead and calling the shots. “You’ve got to understand that you now drive the car, you tell the provinces and Canada where they sit,” Cadmus Delorme, chief of the Cowessess First Nation said March 30, while speaking in Winnipeg at the Empowering Our Children assembly hosted by Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak. “You slap their hand and say, ‘I’m calling the tunes
on the radio now.’” Delorme was in Winnipeg to speak at the Assembly last week just months after Cowessess First Nation, a First Nations community in southern Saskatchewan, signed a historic agreement with the federal government to take back control of their CFS system, a system they had no control over since 1951. The agreement between Cowessess and the feds was signed in July and is the first signed under new legislation introduced in 2019 that seeks to reduce the number of Indigenous children in care in Canada and to give First Nations more and greater control over child welfare systems. According to the federal government, Indigenous children under the age of 14 account for 52 per cent of children in foster care across the country, despite making up just seven per cent of all children in that age group in Canada. But that overrepresenta-
Screenshot Cadmus Delorme, chief of Cowessess First Nation, speaks March 30 during Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak’s Empowering Our Children assembly in Winnipeg. tion is much higher for Indigenous children in Manitoba, as according to information released by the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, about 90 per cent of the approximately 12,000 youth currently in care in Manitoba are Indigenous. Delorme said the new agreement has already brought “success stories” as one year ago there were four children on-reserve in Cowessess who were in
care, but one year later that number now sits at zero. He said First Nations must now be willing to work with the federal government on agreements like the one signed in his community, but also be patient as communities’ transition into taking complete control of their CFS. “You have to understand it’s not like you just flip a light switch, so the ministries do still play a part
while we transition,” he said. “But now every child apprehended is apprehended under our law, and we will be a part of every conversation.” During the assembly, which brought together Indigenous leaders and government officials for three days of discussions around how to improve outcomes for Indigenous youth in Manitoba, MKO Grand Chief Garrison Settee gave an impassioned speech about why he believes Manitoba’s First Nations communities must work to take back control of CFS systems. “It’s all about the children,” Settee said. “What kind of future will they have? What kind of path are we going to pave for them? “It’s not about our organizations or our agenda, it’s not about a fiscal plan or politics, it’s about our children and we must never ever forget that.”
Settee said he believes he will see a day when all First Nations in Manitoba regain control over their child welfare systems, and he said that will allow those communities to keep more of their children connected to their homes and to their culture. “First Nations now have the opportunity to take back their children from governments, from legislation, from policy, and from further harm and abuse,” Settee said. “The day is coming my brothers and my sisters when our children will no longer be taken away from First Nations and given to different families that do not know our culture or language. “Our people are rising up and saying ‘no more.’” — Dave Baxter is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the government of Canada.