Indigenous people in southern Alberta are calling for action to back up Pope Francis’ apology for the role the Catholic Church played in Canada’s residential school system.
On Monday, the pontiff formally apologized for the abuses suffered at residential schools during his visit to the former site of the Ermineskin Indian Residential School in Maskwacis, Alta.
Sheldon Day Chief attended St. Mary’s Residential School on the Blood Reserve, which was one of more than 130 residential schools operated in Canada between the 1870s and 1996.“It was triggering as I know of many of the abuses first-hand, as I witnessed many of the sexual abuses and first-hand experiencing some of the physical abuses and the mental abuses,” he told CTV News.
“An important part of this process will be to conduct a serious investigation into the facts of what took place in the past and to assist the survivors of the residential schools to experience healing from the traumas they suffered,” he said. Earl Thiessen, executive director of the Oxford House Foundation of Canada in Calgary, which supports people with addictions, said the apology was moving.“Unless he’s reaching out to shake your hand, you really don’t touch the Pope but for him to allow that to be placed on his head, I think was monumental for all of the country and First Nations people,” Thiessen, who is from the Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation in Sask. said.
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