ROME --
Phil Fontaine, former nationwide chief of the Meeting of First Nations, says he believes Pope Francis will apologize for the Catholic Church’s position in Canada’s residential faculty system.
“Our expectation could be very clear and robust that Pope Francis will apologize,” Fontaine informed CTV Nationwide Information on Tuesday. “Our hope is that he'll come to Canada to apologize. He’s already made a dedication that he'll go to Canada, and so there may be an expectation and hope that he'll apologize in Canada on First Nations land.”
Fontaine spoke with CTV Nationwide Information and Indigenous Circle Reporter Donna Sound in Rome. Fontaine is one among 32 delegates assembly with Pope Francis on the Vatican this week to debate reconciliation between the Catholic Church and First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities in Canada.
Fontaine led the Meeting of First Nations as nationwide chief from 1997 to 2000, and was additionally chief of the Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba. A residential faculty survivor, Fontaine was one of many first Indigenous leaders in Canada to talk out concerning the bodily, sexual and psychological abuses endured on the faculties.
"I had no concept what the fallout could be," Fontaine informed CTV Nationwide Information’ Chief Anchor and Senior Editor Lisa LaFlamme in Rome of his testimony about his time on the Fort Alexander Residential Faculty in Manitoba. "I did not know if Canadians would care. I did not know what the response from the Church could be. I did not know if the federal government was ."
Following the invention of unmarked graves on the websites of a few of Canada's former residential faculties, the tales of survivors have been dropped at the forefront.
"The entire world is watching and the pivotal second in that shift was in fact the 215 unmarked graves in Kamloops (that) shocked the nation," Fontaine mentioned. "It modified every part, it fully modified every part."
Starting within the late 1800s, roughly 150,000 Indigenous kids have been separated from their households and compelled to attend residential faculties, services that aimed to exchange their languages and tradition with English and Christian beliefs. Most have been run by the Catholic Church.
Quite a few circumstances of abuse and at the very least 4,100 deaths have been documented on the former residential faculties, the place 1000's of confirmed and unmarked graves have been discovered. Canada’s final residential faculty closed in 1996.
Fontaine says different points are additionally being mentioned on the Vatican.
“Central to all of what has transpired over time, along with abuse in residential faculties, is the land: the land that was taken from us,” Fontaine defined. “The Catholic Church was complicit in that course of, and so we want to have the ability to reclaim our lands. And I’m completely sure that the Catholic Church will likely be very supportive in that course of.”
Fontaine hopes the Catholic Church may also play a job within the financial growth of Indigenous communities, very like the U.S. did in post-war Europe with the Marshall Plan.
“We’ve had quite a few discussions with them, even together with speaking a couple of Marshall Plan to revitalize Indigenous communities, in the way in which that Europe was revitalized after the Second [World] Battle,” Fontaine mentioned.
Fontaine was beforehand a part of an Meeting of First Nations delegation that met with Pope Benedict on the Vatican in 2009. This time, he travelled together with his daughter and granddaughters.
"I wish to have a sense after I get on the aircraft that issues are literally altering, issues are in movement and this is not simply going to be a cultural second, a flash within the pan," Fontaine's granddaughter Aluk informed LaFlamme. "It will be one thing that sticks and we're all dedicated as a rustic to one thing higher for all of us. That is what I hope."
Whereas he doesn’t anticipate an official papal apology throughout the journey, Fontaine is assured one will likely be delivered in Canada.
“He may apologize right here, but when he apologizes right here, that shouldn’t excuse him from delivering an apology on Canadian soil, as a result of that is what we’ve been asking for,” he mentioned from Rome. “We’ve been reminded various occasions that the pope will apologize and that he’s additionally dedicated to return to Canada, so we’re on our means.”
Watch the complete interview with Fontaine and his household above or on CTVNews.ca.
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