A number of churches that ran residential schools in Canada have already apologized for their role in that dark chapter of Canada’s history.
Ogichidaa of Grand Council Treaty #3, Francis Kavanaugh, says in the wake of the grisly discovery of the mass grave of 215 children in Kamloops, B.C., there is one church that hasn’t apologized.
“I believe that the Catholic Church needs to come forward and make efforts to bring the Pope to Canada for a formal apology to all First Nations,” Grand Chief Kavanaugh urges.
Kavanaugh says the people who worked in the residential schools are responsible for a genocide of First Nations people.
“They haven’t been made accountable for what they’ve done in creating what some call cultural genocide,” Kavanaugh says. “But for us, it’s genocide. That’s what took place.”