Apology, yes, but action now

In a show of solidarity with residential school survivors, Parliamentarians this week called on Pope Francis to visit Canada and apologize for the role that Roman Catholic priests, nuns and other officials played in the abuse of Indigenous children.

It was the latest nudge to the Pope to do the right thing, following a personal appeal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made last year during a visit to the Vatican.

Survivors of the church-run residential school system deserve no less. But while an apology from the Pope would help to heal the wounds of yesterday’s Indigenous children, Parliament and the provinces should focus more on what they can do to protect the children of today.

The uncomfortable fact is that in today’s Canada more Indigenous children are being taken out of their homes and communities than were displaced at the height of the residential school system. The difference is that those responsible now are provincial child welfare services, which place them in foster care at rates far higher than their share of the population.

Consider these disturbing numbers. In 2016 more than 14,000 Indigenous children were in foster care. They accounted for just over half of all foster kids in the country even though they make up only 7 per cent of children in Canada.

By comparison, at the height of the residential school system in the late 1950s, about 11,500 Indigenous children were housed there.

Of course, residential schools weren’t the same as foster care. They were rife with abuse of all kinds, which has been well documented.

But one of the greatest injuries done to Indigenous children back then was the simple fact of severing their ties with community and family. Foster care can inflict similar long-lasting damage.

Indeed, earlier this year Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott herself called the over-use of foster care for Indigenous kids a “humanitarian crisis.” Children are being apprehended because of poverty, a lack of adequate housing or food, she noted, adding: “We should be addressing the housing issue or the adequate food issue, not taking kids from their families.”

Philpott had it right. The federal government has been at fault in the past for underfunding reserves, with children paying the price.

In 2016, in fact, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal slammed Ottawa for discriminating against vulnerable First Nations children by providing less money for child welfare services than would be available off-reserve. Perversely, that creates “an incentive to bring children into care,” the tribunal found.

There has been a great deal of attention focused on exposing the damage wrought by residential schools. Persuading the Pope to deliver a personal apology for the role of the church in that tragic chapter of our history would be another welcome step along that path.

But how much more useful it would be for governments to pay serious attention to the wrongs still being inflicted on far too many Indigenous children? A co-ordinated effort by Ottawa and the provinces to limit the use of foster care would be a perfect place to start.

Apologies are good. Action on present problems is better.