Pope Francis’s speech in Iqaluit began with another apology for the ‘evil perpetuated’ on Indigenous people by church members
On Friday, he met with several school survivors In Iqaluit before an outdoor performance that included traditional throat singing and drum dancing. His speech before hundreds began with another apology for the “evil perpetuated” on Indigenous people by church members. Speaking in his native Spanish, Francis’s speech was translated into English and Inuktitut. He told them he was sorry in Inuktitut, a meaningful gesture to many in the audience.
In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission called on the Pope to apologize in Canada for the church’s role in the schools. “It seems he doesn’t want to name the church itself in these crimes,” said Mr. Kolok, a local property manager for an Inuit company. “We have a lot of people who were taken away from here. The nuns and priests who are still around and took part in these abuses should be held accountable.”
Mr. Irniq anticipated that the ceremony with the Pope would be a 'momentous' occasion for Inuit, a chance to showcase a culture that has withstood decades of attempts to dismantle it by several institutions in Canada, including the Catholic Church.At the Sir Joseph Bernier Day School, he and the other students were forbidden from using their Inuit dialects. He recalled a moment when a nun painfully struck his open palm with a long ruler for speaking in Inuktitut with his peers.
On the Pope coming specifically to Iqaluit, she said: “That’s the reason I didn’t go down south to Edmonton or anywhere else. I wanted to stand on Nunavut ground, in my homeland, when he apologized. And I’m glad he came. “This was one community that was divided into two. Igloolik was more like Northern Ireland in the 1960s, family against family, because of religion,” Mr. Quassa said. “That’s how they tried destroying us, but they didn’t succeed. They never succeeded.”
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