Indigenous Services minister wants Pope to apologize for Canada s residential schools
by The Canadian Press
Last Updated Jun 2, 2021 at 11:44 am EDT
Marc Miller, Minister of Indigenous Services, and Dr. Tom Wong, Chief Medical Officer of Public Health, hold a press conference in Ottawa on Wednesday, June 2, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
OTTAWA Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller says the Pope needs to issue an apology for the role the Catholic Church played in Canada’s residential school system.
A papal apology was one of the 94 recommendations made by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau personally asked the Pope to consider such a gesture during a visit to the Vatican in 2017.
Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett announced Wednesday that the federal government is ready to distribute $27 million in pre-announced funding to assist Indigenous communities in locating and memorializing children who died at residential schools.
He stresses that all levels of government want to take their lead from Indigenous communities and leaders about what they would like to do with the individual school buildings, grounds and burial sites.
Lametti also says it would be difficult to go back in time and criminalize behaviours or actions done as far back as 150 years ago.
But for those looking for some level of legal accountability, the justice minister says he would be open to the idea of protecting these sites from tampering.
He adds that if Indigenous leaders request it, he would examine the possibility of holding people criminally responsible who try to destroy or hide facts.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that his government will take further actions in response to the discovery of the remains of 215 children in a former residential school in Kamloops city.Amid calls for accountability and to go beyond .
TORONTO The head of a First Nations organization in Saskatchewan says ground searches will soon be underway at the 22 residential schools in that province, as calls for a similar effort to take place across the country grow louder. Chief Bobby Cameron of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, which represents 74 First Nations in Saskatchewan, says that conversations with Premier Scott Moe and federal Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller resulted in an agreement to conduct the searches at all residential schools in the province. They re committed to working with us and getting this done for our families and survivors, he told CTV News Channel on Tuesday.