A Mi’kmaw chief says the Pope’s visit to Canada needs to be about action.
News of the visit came from the Vatican last week; It’s widely expected — but not confirmed — the Pope will offer a formal apology to Indigenous people for the Catholic Church’s involvement in Canada’s residential school system.
Chief Annie Bernard-Daisley of We’koqma’q First Nation in Cape Breton says an apology is meaningless without accountability.
“Do the apology but also solidify that apology with action,” she says. “Give up the school records. Let [us] know what students walked in that door and who didn’t walk out.”
A formal apology from the Pope to residential school survivors, their families, and communities was one of the National Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 calls to action.
The TRC report called for that apology to happen on Canadian soil, within one year of the report’s 2015 release date.
Bernard-Daisley says if the Pope does apologize, it’ll be long overdue. She believes families deserve better.
“There’s people still being charged for what they did in the Holocaust. What makes us any different?”
People should be held accountable for the full impact of losing a whole generation, Bernard-Daisley says.
“These people should be charged for their crimes: these nuns, these priests, everybody that brutalized these children.”
