Canada PM urges Catholic Church to ‘take responsibility’ for school abuses

People from Mosakahiken Cree Nation hug in front of a makeshift memorial at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School to honour the 215 children whose remains have been discovered buried near the facility, in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, on June 4, 2021. – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on June 4 urged the Catholic Church to “take responsibility” and release records on indigenous residential schools under its direction, after the discovery of remains of 215 children in unmarked graves. (Photo by Cole Burston / AFP)

OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday urged the Catholic Church to “take responsibility” and release records on indigenous residential schools under its direction, after the discovery of remains of 215 children in unmarked graves.

And he warned that his government was prepared to take “stronger measures,” possibly including legal action, to obtain the documents demanded by victims’ families if the church fails to comply.

Canada has been convulsed by the discovery of the remains at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia — especially as there were only 50 deaths officially on record there.

The school was one of many boarding schools set up a century ago to forcibly assimilate the country’s indigenous peoples.

“As a Catholic, I am deeply disappointed by the position that the Catholic Church has taken now and over the past many years,” Trudeau told a news conference.

(FILES) In this file photo taken on June 1, 2021 Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visits the makeshift memorial erected in honor of the 215 indigenous children remains found at a boarding school in British Columbia, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on June 4, 2021 urged the Catholic Church to “take responsibility” and release records on indigenous residential schools under its direction, after the discovery of remains of 215 children in unmarked graves. (Photo by Dave Chan / AFP)

He recalled a May 2017 trip to the Vatican during which he sought a formal apology from Pope Francis for abuses of students, as well as access to church records to help account for more than 4,100 students believed to have died from disease or malnutrition.

“We’re still seeing resistance from the Church,” Trudeau said.

When asked if the government might compel disclosure, the prime minister responded: “I think, if it is necessary, we will take stronger measures.”

But he added: “Before we have to start taking the Catholic Church to court, I am very hopeful that religious leaders will understand that this is something they need to participate in.”

– Truth before justice –
Trudeau urged Canadian Catholics to “reach out (to their) local parishes, to bishops and cardinals, and make it clear that we expect the Church to step up and take responsibility for its role in this and be there to help in the grieving and the healing, including with records.”

“It’s something a number of other churches… have done. It’s something we are all still waiting for the Catholic Church to do,” he said.

“We need to have truth before we can talk about justice, healing and reconciliation.”

Jennifer Nickel holds her daughters as they look up at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School where flowers and cards have been left as part of a growing makeshift memorial to honour the 215 children whose remains have been discovered buried near the facility, in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, on June 3, 2021. (Photo by Cole BURSTON / AFP)

The Kamloops school in British Columbia, where the unmarked graves were discovered last week using ground-penetrating radar, was operated by the Catholic Church on behalf of the government from 1890 to 1969.

Some 150,000 Indian, Inuit and Metis youngsters in total were enrolled in 139 of these residential schools, where students were physically and sexually abused by headmasters and teachers who stripped them of their culture and language.

Those experiences are blamed now for a high incidence of poverty, alcoholism and domestic violence, as well as high suicide rates, in indigenous communities.

Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation looks on as she speaks with reporters at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School where an unmarked mass grave of 215 children was recently discovered near the facility, in Kamloops, British Columbia on June 4, 2021. (Photo by Cole Burston / AFP)

In Kamloops, Tk̓emlups te Secwepemc chief Rosanne Casimir, who has enlisted the help of the British Columbia coroner to help identify students’ remains and causes of deaths, told reporters the tribe had never received any records from the Oblates of Mary Immaculate who ran the school.

“We do want an apology” from the Church, she said, “a public apology, not just for us, but for the world… holding the Church to account.”


© Agence France-Presse