Papal apology motion overwhelmingly passes
Parliament votes to call on Catholic Church to own up to role in residential school system
OTTAWA— Chief Kimberly Jonathan had tears in her eyes as she spoke about witnessing more than 250 MPs call on Pope Francis to apologize for the Catholic Church’s role in the Indigenous residential school system.
Jonathan was on Parliament Hill Tuesday to watch MPs in the House of Commons vote in support of a New Democratic Party motion for a papal apology.
The tally was 269 to 10, with most MPs from every party joining the call for the pontiff to apologize for the church’s role in the school system that was deemed a tool of “cultural genocide” by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in 2015.
“It’s more moving than I can express,” said Jonathan, chief of the Saskatchewan-based Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations. “We stood together today in Canada.”
Tuesday’s motion included an invitation to Pope Francis to come to Canada and apologize, and called on the Catholic Church to “resume best efforts” to raise funds as agreed in the 2006 settlement deal between residential school students, religious groups that run the schools and the federal government.
The motion also asked Catholic entities to make “consistent and sustained” efforts to provide documents from the schools to former students who want them.
In March, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said the Pope would not “personally respond” to the request for an apology issued by the TRC in its 94 calls to action.
Charlie Angus, the NDP MP who sponsored the motion, said it was an “historic” day for Canadians, and expressed confidence that Pope Francis will respond, calling him the “social justice” pope.
“This was an overwhelming show of solidarity from every part of the country, from all political stripes, asking the pope (to) do the right thing. This is certainly unprecedented,” Angus said.
The 10 MPs who voted against the motion were Conservatives.
The party’s Indigenous affairs critic, Cathy McLeod, disagreed with those in her party who felt it wasn’t Parliament’s role to ask the Pope to apologize.
“You only need to hear the stories from the people that attended the residential schools to understand how much impact that it had on them,” McLeod said, adding that she is proud that Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper was the one to apologize for the residential schools on behalf of the Canadian government in 2008.
Alvin Fiddler, grand chief of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, said a papal apology is important for the country to “move forward” from the wrongs committed in residential schools.
“This needs to happen,” he said.