Lifesite News reports the vandalism comes after controversial claims about unmarked graves at former Indian Residential School sites.

The cabinet's report, released on 19 September, attributes a significant rise in these incidents to unproven allegations that hundreds of children were buried at these schools, specifically the Kamloops school in British Columbia.

Despite initial reports in 2021 that ground-penetrating radar had uncovered human remains, no actual remains have been discovered.

Rise in church attacks

The number of incidents at places of worship skyrocketed following the 2021 claims.

Police-reported data shows 423 incidents since 2015, with 90 attacks recorded in 2021 alone.

This represents a stark increase from the previous average of 13 similar attacks annually before 2015.

"This includes incidents that occurred on the surrounding property such as an attached cemetery or adjacent parking lot or inside a religious institution" the cabinet stated in response to an inquiry by Conservative MP Marc Dalton who had requested statistics on the burning of places of worship.

Government and media response

Opposition members have criticised the Trudeau government's response to the wave of church attacks.

In 2021, Trudeau acknowledged the vandalism only weeks after the attacks had begun, stating that while such actions were "understandable" they remained "unacceptable and wrong".

Critics, including Conservative MPs, have accused the government and mainstream media of sympathising with those responsible for the attacks.

A Canadian Broadcasting Corporation report highlighted the emotional response of some individuals to the residential school claims which opponents argue contributed to the rise in violence against churches.

Controversy over school claims

The allegations that sparked the rise in church attacks originated from discoveries at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, where radar technology detected soil disturbances initially believed to indicate unmarked graves.

However, no remains have been found, reports Lifesite News.

Residential schools, which operated from the late 19th century until 1996, were mandated by the Canadian federal government and managed by various Christian organisations including the Catholic Church.

Source

• Lifesite News
• CathNews NZ

The legal action claims the current exclusion of mental illness from the Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) programme is discriminatory under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The challenge comes amid ongoing debates and delays regarding the inclusion of mental illness as a qualifying condition for euthanasia.

Currently, Canada's MAID programme, legalised in 2016, permits euthanasia for individuals with physical illnesses, diseases or disabilities. However, those suffering solely from mental illness are not eligible, with the government planning to expand eligibility to include mental illness by March 17, 2027.

DWDC argues that the delay in expanding MAID to include mental illness violates Section 15 of the Charter, which mandates equal treatment under the law.

Helen Long, CEO of DWDC, highlighted the need to recognise the suffering of individuals with mental illness as equally devastating as physical suffering.

"All capable adults must be respected in their decisions and their choices honoured" said Long.

Contentious move

The expansion of euthanasia to include mental illness has been contentious.

Initially set for 2023, the expansion was postponed to 2024 and then to 2027 due to concerns that the healthcare system was unprepared for such a change.

Critics, including the Catholic Church in Canada, argue that expanding euthanasia to mental illness undermines human dignity and could lead to vulnerable individuals being pressured into ending their lives.

In May 2023, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops expressed concerns that the expansion could predispose individuals with disabilities to suicide, citing instances where people felt pressured to choose euthanasia due to inadequate support and care.

"A patient diagnosed with a terminal condition or living in a situation of prolonged suffering must be offered whatever life-affirming relief and hope are available" the bishops stated.

The debate over euthanasia in Canada reflects broader ethical and legal challenges associated with end-of-life decisions.

Critics warn that economic incentives might drive government officials to promote euthanasia over providing comprehensive care.

Jimmy Akin, a senior apologist at Catholic Answers, cautioned against viewing euthanasia as a solution to mental health struggles, saying the need for compassionate care and support are paramount.

Source

• CNA

As Canadian law currently stands, only an adult with a grievous and irremediable medical condition can seek medical assistance in dying.

But the numbers don't fit with the "rarely used option" most Canadians envisaged.

It's a slippery slope they've set up. Within seven years, 31,664 Canadians had used MAiD to end their lives. In 2021, there were 10,064 of them.

That's a year-on-year increase of nearly a third.

Today MAiD is touted as a treatment option to manage fear of eventual suffering, to eliminate the pain of loneliness and isolation - and as a viable option when social needs cannot be met.

Broadening criteria

A new Research Co. poll asked respondents if people should be able to seek medical assistance in dying. It found:

• 51 percent agreed to allow adults to seek MAiD due to an inability to receive medical treatment
• 50 percent agreed to allow adults to seek MAiD due to a disability (60 percent aged 18-34)
• 43 percent agreed to allow adults to seek MAiD due to mental illness
• 28 percent would consent to expand the guidelines to include homelessness
• 27 percent would consent to expand the guidelines to include poverty (41 percent aged 18-34).

Drastic impact

Monica Doumit, from the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, says MAiD has already had a "drastic impact" on Canadian life.

"Sanctioning the killing of the vulnerable breeds an attitude of indifference to their suffering and an abdication by the individual and the state to care for those most in need.

"Previously, changes to the law on significant social issues would take generations before they were normalised.

"The rapid speed at which Canadians are accepting this new wave in a culture of death is truly shocking."

Budget savings

The Canadian Parliamentary Budget Office noted in 2020 the MAiD scheme would save the Government $149 million in 2020.

It would reduce the burden of "disproportionately high" healthcare costs in the end of life period, and through expansion of the scheme's eligibility criteria.

Healthcare costs in the last year of life represent "between 10 per cent and 20 per cent of total health care costs despite these patients representing about 1 per cent of the population," the Canadia PBO report said.

"Nevertheless, this report should in no way be interpreted as suggesting that MAiD be used to reduce health care costs."

Catholic opposition

The Permanent Council of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) has consistently expressed opposition to euthanasia and assisted suicide. It has not changed its mind.

"Expanding access to euthanasia and assisted suicide for individuals living with a mental illness closes the door to any hope of recovery.

"It…undermines the universal and inviolable dignity of human life and harms the building up of society."

The CCCB encourages the faithful "to witness to life, to tend to and accompany the sick, to resist pressure to support or participate in MAiD, and to pray that our law makers may see the harm in what they are permitting to take place."

Source

• Research.co
• Twitter
• Catholic Weekly
• CCCB

"I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples," the pope said. Canada's own government has previously expressed its regret.

Francis was in Canada to apologize, not to preach — which may be why he said relatively little about that country's legalization of euthanasia in 2016.

Rebranded as "medical assistance in dying," or MAID, the formerly taboo practice is now hailed in Canada as both humane medical care and essential to patient autonomy. It enjoys strong support in opinion polls and the full backing of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's federal government.

Still, Francis's church is doctrinally opposed to euthanasia, and he has personally condemned it, so the pope did allude, in one of his public addresses, to "patients who, in place of affection, are administered death."

He could, and should, have said more. Even before Francis's visit, there was evidence euthanasia has problems.

Between 2016 and 2021, Canadian medical personnel administered lethal doses to more than 31,000 people who were usually — but not always — terminally ill.

Since 2019, Canadian law has said that "intolerable" suffering due to "incurable" illness, which could include various chronic disabling conditions, may be sufficient to qualify for a lethal injection.

These permissive standards may be resulting in avoidable death or distress for vulnerable people, and disability rights advocates are expressing concern, as Maria Cheng of the Associated Press reported Aug. 11.

She told the story of 61-year-old Alan Nichols, who requested — and received — euthanasia less than a month after entering a British Columbia hospital in June 2019, suffering from suicidal thoughts, dehydration and malnutrition.

The decision was apparently based on a medical history that included serious but typically non-life-threatening conditions such as depression and hearing loss.

His grief-stricken family has sought explanations as to how doctors could have found their loved one competent to "choose" death much less needful of it.

"Somebody needs to take responsibility so that it never happens to another family," Trish Nichols, Alan's sister-in-law, told Cheng.

The family's inquiries to provincial and federal authorities have so far produced only officials' insistence that Alan met the criteria for physician-assisted death.

Cheng described the case of a man with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease, who felt driven to seek euthanasia because British Columbia officials would not provide him adequate support to live at home.

In a case separately reported by Canadian media this year, a 31-year-old Toronto woman with a disability sought and received approval for euthanasia after what she said was a futile search for safe housing — only to decide to continue living after private parties helped her find an appropriate dwelling.

While the details of these and other instances are difficult for outsiders to parse, and while it is true, as Canadian officials told Cheng, that 65 percent of euthanasia procedures have been performed on cancer patients, the issue's very murkiness and subjectivity is a warning sign.

In this context, any mistake could be irreversible.

Cheng reports that, as compared with the other six countries where euthanasia is legal, Canada's margin for error may be wider.

Canadian patients are not required to exhaust all treatment options before seeking MAID. Canada allows nurse practitioners as well as doctors to end patients' lives.

Another warning sign: Last year, a top United Nations disability rights official wrote to Trudeau advising him that legalizing euthanasia for the non-terminally ill creates an implied negative judgment on "the value or quality of life of persons with disabilities." Continue reading

Francis, in Canada on what he called a penitential pilgrimage, apologized to the Indigenous peoples of the country for the Catholic Church's cooperation in their forced assimilation to colonising Europeans' culture over the centuries, especially in residential schools run by the church.

People from the First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities who listened to the pope's apologies responded for the most part positively. Many, however, regretted that it took so long for the pope to apologise, and some wanted him to say more.

Some Indigenous leaders wanted the pope to denounce the Doctrine of Discovery, a 15th-century theory enshrined in the papal bull, "Inter Caetera," that allowed Christian nations to conquer and colonise "barbarous" nations in order to convert them to Christianity. At that time, Christians believed that those who were not baptised could not go to heaven.

The first question addressed to the pope on the plane returning to Rome was from an Indigenous reporter for CBC Radio, Jessica Ka'nhehsíio Deer.

"As a descendant of a residential school survivor, I know that survivors and their families want to see concrete actions following your apology, including the rejection of the ‘Doctrine of Discovery,'" she said.

"Considering that this is still enshrined in the Constitution and legal systems in Canada and the United States, where Indigenous peoples continue to be defrauded of their lands and deprived of power, was it not a missed opportunity to make a statement to this effect during your trip to Canada?"

The pope's response was shocking. "I didn't understand the second part of the question. Could you explain what you mean by Doctrine of Discovery?"

What? The pope does not know what the Doctrine of Discovery is?

There isn't an excuse for this lapse.

How could the pope make a trip to Canada to apologise for the church's role in forced assimilation without knowing about the Doctrine of Discovery?

Why was he not briefed on this?

Certainly, there are people in the Vatican, especially in the Secretariat of State, and among the Canadian hierarchy who know that this doctrine is of concern to the Indigenous leaders in Canada and elsewhere.

How could they let the pope go to Canada without a thorough briefing on this topic? If he had been briefed, he probably would have been happy to reject it.

Somebody dropped the ball.

True, this was not the most important issue of the trip.

What the Indigenous people wanted was an apology for what happened in the residential schools and the church's role in forced assimilation. Of the 50,000 people who attended his Mass in Edmonton, probably fewer than 1,000 knew about the doctrine. But this is an issue of great concern to Indigenous leaders and scholars.

The pope should not have been caught flat-footed by a question from a journalist.

The issue has been well covered by the press.

Using the search function at the Religion News Service website, I found 390 results mentioning the Doctrine of Discovery just since 2020.

Catholic publications like the National Catholic Reporter and America, published by the Jesuits, have also discussed it thoroughly.

Indeed, at the United Nations Ninth Session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in April 2010, the Vatican said that the doctrine had been abrogated as early as 1494 and that "circumstances have changed so much that to attribute any juridical value to such a document seems completely out of place."

In short, the Vatican said, "The Holy See confirms that Inter Caetera has already been abrogated and considers it without any legal or doctrinal value."

When reporters ask the Vatican about the doctrine, they get a similar response and are told that the topic is under study.

The pope should have been prepped on what the Vatican has been saying so he could have at least said the same.

Vatican officials should have known that this question was coming, and they should have prepared the pope to respond. Instead, he was left looking like a student who had not done his homework.

The pope's response to a second question was also embarrassing.

Here the pope was asked about genocide.

"The people who heard your words of apology this past week expressed their disappointment because the word ‘genocide' was not used," said Brittany Hobson of The Canadian Press.

"Would you use that term to say that members of the church participated in genocide?"

Here the pope quickly embraced the idea. "It is true," he said.

But then he added, "I didn't use the word because it didn't come to my mind."

What?

None of his advisers suggested that he might refer to what happened to the Indigenous peoples of Canada as "genocide"?

You got to be kidding.

The Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission described the residential school system as genocide, so this is nothing new.

If one of the pope's speechwriters had suggested using the term "genocide," it is clear from the pope's response that he would have included it in his speeches.

Again, someone dropped the ball.

The pope's responses on the plane back to Rome are beyond embarrassing; they are scandalous.

The pope needs better staffing or people will begin to think that perhaps he is no longer up to the job.

• Thomas Reese SJ is a senior analyst at Religion News Service, a former columnist at National Catholic Reporter, and a former editor-in-chief of the weekly Catholic magazine America. First published in RNS. Republished with permission.

They include indigenous peoples from across the world. One, Hemopereki Simon, is a research expert in indigenous politics and Te Tiriti.

"I have survived the settler colonial education system and have come out on top in research fields that allow me to critique and speak back to power," he says.

"In terms of cultural appropriation, the act by the Cree to offer the pope a warbonnet places all of our efforts on this subject into question."

He points to the indigenous Americans complaints "about white people's interpretation of indigeneity".

This includes significant criticism about warbonnets because of what they represent to indigeneity, he says.

"They show leadership and are given as a sign of mastery of war."

The chief's gift is like saying to Aboriginal Australia "you deserve to be called fauna".

An indigenous person who was raised as a Catholic, he says he struggles significantly with the Church's actions throughout the world, particularly its cover-ups.

"Significant change is required towards indigenous peoples," he says. The Catholic Church is responsible for legitimising colonisation.

"In this space, the conservative and flawed Ratzinger approach with a political apology is not enough."

Compensation and a commitment to rescind the Doctrine of Discovery are also needed, he suggests.

This could start with church leaders conceding that "in the indigenous world they are an invading force and indigenous peoples are actually humans.

"What is needed is balance to restore indigenous nations towards an agenda of decolonisation."

Simon notes reconciliation is a Christian-derived philosophy that does not reflect what is needed in the indigenous world.

"We require more than an apology."

He wonders how the Church is contributing to decolonisation and cultural restitution around the world.

It still maintains the infallibility of every Pontiff and all actions taken to date.

Just because our collective colonial wars are over doesn't mean the war with settler colonialism and its structures is over, he points out.

It celebrates the Church's war against the indigenous world since 1492, he says.

"With respect to the Cree on behalf of your indigenous brothers and sisters everywhere - but what the actual hell?"

The Church's purpose was to further the goals of the two invading settler colonial forces, being the white possessive state and the white possessive church, he says.

"In terms of cultural appropriation, the act ... places all of our efforts on this subject into question."

Chief Wilton Littlechild sees it differently

The Maskwacis Chief, Wilton Littlechild who gave Francis the headdress sees it differently.

"One of the things I learned [from my grandparents] is you don't criticise ... other culture's traditions."

As part of the traditional welcome many tribes give headdresses to dignitaries, he explains.

It was "tradition," repeated Littlechild.

"We decided at home, as a community, to welcome him with a gift because he [chose to come] into our territory," he says.

The headdress they gave the pope had belonged to the man who raised Littlechild - his late grandfather.

Source

• Native News Online
• NZ Herald

The Doctrine is a collection of papal teachings beginning in the 14th century.

The teachings (called papal bulls) blessed explorers' efforts to colonise and claim the lands of any people who were not Christian.

The explorers would then place both the land and the people under the sovereignty of European Christian rulers.

Among those wanting it gone are Indigenous Canadians, Canada's bishops and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Indigenous people in Canada have for years been calling for the Doctrine of Discovery to be rescinded.

One Indigenous group staged a protest about the Doctrine just before Pope Francis celebrated Mass last Thursday at Canada's national shrine.

Rescind the papal decrees underpinning the Doctrine! Repudiate the theories that legitimised the colonial-era seizure of Native lands and form the basis of some property law today, they demanded.

Then two Indigenous women unfurled a banner at the altar. It read: "Rescind the Doctrine" in bright red and black letters. They took it down before Mass started.

Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission has also been looking for action on the Doctrine. In 2015, the Commission listed its repudiation as one of 94 calls to action. It's still waiting.

Canada's bishops are clear about their views.

"Galvanised by the calls of our indigenous partners and by the Holy Father's remarks, we are working with the Vatican and those who have studied this issue, with the goal of issuing a new statement from the Church," they said.

"Canada's Bishops continue to reject and resist the ideas associated with the Doctrine of Discovery in the strongest possible way."

Professor of theology and religious studies, Massimo Faggioli, thinks Francis is unlikely to formally rescind the doctrine, though he should address it.

Francis himself is aware of the Doctrine's impact on indigenous Canadians.

He spent last week in Canada seeking to atone for the legacy and on Thursday added in another request for forgiveness from victims for the "evil" of clergy sexual abuse.

The doctrine led to the planned destruction of the families, languages, cultures and traditions of the Indigenous communities of Canada through the residential school system.

This was "genocide," Francis said during his return journey to Rome. It always has been a temptation for colonisers to think they were superior to the people whose land they were colonising.

There was even "a theologian, who was a bit crazy," who questioned whether the indigenous people of the Americas had souls," he added.

"This is the problem of every colonialism, even today."

He then pointed to modern forms of "ideological colonialism," which use requests for foreign assistance to force poorer countries to adopt policies that go against the values their people hold dear.

"This doctrine of colonialism truly is evil, it's unjust," Francis said.

Source

• Khaleej Times
• AP News
• Calgary Sun
• Catholic News Service

Francis has said his weeklong visit, which begins Sunday, is a "penitential pilgrimage" to beg forgiveness on Canadian soil for the "evil" done to Native peoples by Catholic missionaries.

It follows his April 1 apology in the Vatican for the generations of trauma Indigenous peoples suffered as a result of a church-enforced policy to eliminate their culture and assimilate them into Canadian Christian society.

Francis' tone of personal repentance has signalled a notable shift for the papacy, which has long acknowledged abuses in the residential schools and strongly asserted the rights and dignity of Indigenous peoples.

But past popes have also hailed the sacrifice and holiness of the European Catholic missionaries who brought Christianity to the Americas — something Francis, too, has done but isn't expected to emphasize during this trip.

Cardinal Michael Czerny, a Canadian Jesuit who is a top papal adviser, recalled that early on in his papacy, Francis asserted that no single culture can claim a hold on Christianity, and that the church cannot demand that people on other continents imitate the European way of expressing the faith.

"If this conviction had been accepted by everyone involved in the centuries after the ‘discovery' of the Americas, much suffering would have been avoided, great developments would have occurred and the Americas would be all-around better," he told The Associated Press in an email.

The trip won't be easy for the 85-year-old Francis or for residential school survivors and their families. Francis can no longer walk without assistance and will be using a wheelchair and cane because of painful strained knee ligaments.

Trauma experts are being deployed at all events to provide mental health assistance for school survivors, given the likelihood of triggering memories.

"It is an understatement to say there are mixed emotions," said Chief Desmond Bull of the Louis Bull Tribe, one of the First Nations that are part of the Maskwacis territory where Francis will deliver his first sweeping apology on Monday near the site of a former residential school.

The Canadian government has admitted that physical and sexual abuse were rampant in the state-funded, Christian schools that operated from the 19th century to the 1970s. Some 150,000 Indigenous children were taken from their families and forced to attend in an effort to isolate them from the influence of their homes, Native languages and cultures.

The legacy of that abuse and isolation from family has been cited by Indigenous leaders as a root cause of the epidemic rates of alcohol and drug addiction on Canadian reservations.

"For survivors from coast to coast, this is an opportunity — the first and maybe the last — to perhaps find some closure for themselves and their families," said Chief Randy Ermineskin of the Ermineskin Cree Nation.

"This will be a difficult process but a necessary one," he said. Continue reading

The apology is only a first step towards reconciliation.

The pilgrimage began Monday, July 25.

The first act on the Canadian "penitential pilgrimage," was the return of two pairs of children's moccasins on 25 July.

"I am sorry," he said.

Cultural destruction

"I ask forgiveness, in particular, for the ways in which many members of the church and of religious communities cooperated, not least through their indifference, in projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation promoted by the governments of that time, which culminated in the system of residential schools.

"We want to walk together, to pray together and to work together so that the sufferings of the past can lead to a future of justice, healing and reconciliation," said Francis.

"I am here because the first step of my penitential pilgrimage among you is that of again asking forgiveness, of telling you once more that I am deeply sorry," he said.

Saying the Church's actions were "catastrophic," Francis called the Indigenous culture "a treasury of sound customs and teachings centred on concern for others, truthfulness, courage and respect, humility, honesty and practical wisdom".

Christian faith, he said, "tells us that this was a disastrous error, incompatible with the Gospel of Jesus Christ".

He said it is painful for him to think of how the values, language and culture of Indigenous communities "was eroded, and that you have continued to pay the price of this."

Reconciliation

After issuing an impassioned apology, Francis gave voice to his vision of reconciliation by visiting an Indigenous Catholic congregation at Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples congregation in Edmonton.

The church, built in 1913, welcomes Indigenous and non-Indigenous faithful.

"This place is a house for all, open and inclusive, just as the Church should be, for it is the family of the children of God where hospitality and welcome, typical values of the Indigenous culture, are essential," he said.

"A home where everyone should feel welcome, regardless of past experiences and personal life stories.

"It pains me to think that Catholics contributed to policies of assimilation and disenfranchisement that inculcated a sense of inferiority — robbing communities and individuals of their cultural and spiritual identity, severing their roots and fostering prejudicial and discriminatory attitudes.

"And that this was also done in the name of an educational system that was supposedly Christian," Pope Francis said.

"One cannot proclaim God in a way contrary to God himself," the pope said.

"Nothing can ever take away the violation of dignity, the experience of evil, the betrayal of trust" suffered by the students, he said.

Nothing can "take away our own shame as believers."

"That happened because believers became worldly and, rather than fostering reconciliation, they imposed their own cultural models" on the students, he said.

Unfortunately, he said, "this attitude dies hard, also from the religious standpoint".

"Indeed, it may seem easier to force God on people, rather than letting them draw near to God," Pope Francis said. "Yet this never works, because that is not how the Lord operates."

"He does not force us, he does not suppress or overwhelm; instead, he loves, he liberates, he leaves us free. He does not sustain with his Spirit those who dominate others, who confuse the Gospel of our reconciliation with proselytism," the pope said.

"While God presents himself simply and quietly," the pope said, "we always have the temptation to impose him, and to impose ourselves in his name."

Build a positive legacy

Day two of his pilgrimage began with Mass, attended by an estimated 50,000 people.

In the course of the homily, Francis challenged humanity to envision the future.

In addition to being children of a history that needs to be preserved, we are authors of a history yet to be written, the Pope said, noting that we are marked by both light and shadows and by the love we did or did not receive, he said.

He said that while we are the children of parents, it is good to ask ourselves what kind of society we want to build and bequeath to those who came after us.

Later in the day he visited Lac Ste Anne, a famous Catholic pilgrimage site in Canada that holds spiritual significance for the nation's indigenous people.

The pope blessed a bowl of the lake's water, which was brought up to a small wooden structure shaped like a teepee, overlooking the lake.

Francis made the Sign of the Cross towards the four cardinal points, according to Indigenous custom.

The pope prayed by the water's edge in his wheelchair before sprinkling the crowds with the blessed water.

He concluded the day celebrating a Liturgy of the Word at the Shrine of Ste Anne, with a crowd of mostly Indigenous people in attendance, estimated at around 10,000.

Condemnation of old and new colonialism

On day three, Francis travelled to Québec where he met with government authorities.

Speaking with Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, Francis criticised the "colonialist mentality" that oppressed Indigenous peoples in the past and continues today, while apologising once more for the role played by the Catholic Church.

"In the past, the colonialist mentality disregarded the concrete life of people and imposed certain predetermined cultural models," he said.

He also warned of modern-day colonialism.

"Yet today too, there are any number of forms of ideological colonisation that clash with the reality of life, stifle the natural attachment of peoples to their values and attempt to uproot their traditions, history and religious ties," he added.

Calling for "the legitimate rights of the native populations and to favour processes of healing and reconciliation between them and the non-indigenous people of the country," Francis labelled the "deplorable system" of residential schools in Canada as an example of "cancel culture".

The Pope reiterated that the Holy See and the local Catholic communities wish to concretely promote the indigenous peoples' rights.

"It is our desire to renew the relationship between the Church and the Indigenous peoples of Canada, a relationship marked both by a love that has borne outstanding fruit and, tragically, deep wounds that we are committed to understanding and healing," he said.

Francis observed that the suffering inflicted by the colonising mentality does not heal easy.

"Multiculturalism is fundamental for the cohesiveness of a society as diverse as the dappled colours of the foliage of the maple trees," he said.

"With its universal dimension, its concern for the most vulnerable, its rightful service to human life at every moment of its existence from conception to natural death, is happy to offer its specific contribution," said Francis.

Controversy

Francis's "Penitential Pilgrimage" is not gone without further cultural controversy.

Some members of First Nations in Manitoba say they're angry that Pope Francis was given a headdress as a gift following his apology on Monday for the role members of the Catholic Church played in Canada's residential school system.

After the Pope's apology in Maskwacis, Alberta, Wilton Littlechild who is honorary chief of Ermineskin First Nation presented the pontiff with a headdress.

The Pope wore the regalia over his traditional papal head covering until it was removed shortly after by a member of his staff.

"For them to gift [the Pope] this sacred item was disappointing," said Kevin Tacan, a knowledge keeper and spiritual advisor from Sioux Valley Dakota Nation in western Manitoba.

"It's become a thing to recognise political leadership, and it's not meant to be that way."

Tacan said headdresses are traditionally earned by members who are doing significant work in service of the community.

"[People] have to prove themselves constantly. They have to continue to prove themselves going into the future, that they still deserve to have it."

Others supported the idea of the gift.

Phil Fontaine, a residential school survivor who has served as both national chief of the Assembly of First Nations and grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, said Littlechild followed protocols in requesting permission to present the headdress.

"He went to the elders. He went to the leadership and requested permission to present that gift. So [it was] entirely consistent with the way they followed their customs and protocol," Fontaine said.

Tacan acknowledges some, like Fontaine, support the gift but he doesn't agree with them.

"I suppose [the Pope is] the leader for them. But I don't believe that the Pope is the leader for the rest of us," he said.

"How do we invite the fox into the chicken coop and say, 'OK, you're the head rooster in here?' It doesn't work that way."

"If somebody has a vision or if the community decides, 'This is a good leader, let's pick him,' they go over and they put a blanket around him, put a headdress on him," he said. "They will decide."

He said medicine men can also decide if someone deserves a headdress.

"He already knows — he got the information from up there," Wakita said.

He doesn't believe many people understand the meaning of the headdress anymore.

"I'm sorry to say that our people, they don't understand the sacredness of this. Not the importance — the sacredness of something that came from the Creator."

Sources

• RNS
• RNS
• Vatican News
• CathNews
• CNA
• CBC

The shoes were not part of the Vatican Museums artefacts but were given to him when Canadian Indigenous visited Rome in March 2022

"The first step of my penitential pilgrimage among you is that of again asking forgiveness, of telling you once more that I am deeply sorry," the Pope said.

"I am sorry," he said.

"I ask forgiveness, in particular, for the ways in which many members of the church and of religious communities cooperated, not least through their indifference, in projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation promoted by the governments of that time, which culminated in the system of residential schools."

Francis was greeted by Cree Chief Wilton Littlechild, who, on behalf of the First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities, expressed deep appreciation for "the great personal effort" he has made to meet Indigenous peoples in their homeland.

In his address Usow-Kihew ("Golden Eagle",) as he is known in his Cree community, warmly welcomed Pope Francis' joining the Indigenous peoples of Canada in their journey of healing and reconciliation and said the words he spoke after meeting the Indigenous delegations in Rome and listening to their stories, were "a source of deep comfort and great encouragement".

Francis said he is visiting their native lands to tell them in person of his sorrow and to implore God's forgiveness.

"We want to walk together, to pray together and to work together so that the sufferings of the past can lead to a future of justice, healing and reconciliation," said Francis.

"I am here because the first step of my penitential pilgrimage among you is that of again asking forgiveness, of telling you once more that I am deeply sorry," he said.

Francis apologised "for the ways in which, regrettably, many Christians supported the colonizing mentality of the powers that oppressed the Indigenous peoples."

Saying the Church's actions were "catastrophic," Francis called the indigenous culture "a treasury of sound customs and teachings, centred on concern for others, truthfulness, courage and respect, humility, honesty, and practical wisdom."

Christian faith, he said, "tells us that this was a disastrous error, incompatible with the Gospel of Jesus Christ."

He said it is painful for him to think of how the values, language, and culture of Indigenous communities "was eroded, and that you have continued to pay the price of this."

The Canadian government now estimates at least 150,000 First Nation, Inuit and Métis children were taken from their families and communities and forced to attend the schools between 1870 and 1997.

At least 4,120 children died at the schools, and several thousand others vanished without a trace.

As the meeting with the pope began, dozens of people carried a long red banner through the crowd. The banner bore the names of each of the 4,120 deceased children and the school where they died.

Students at the schools were forbidden to speak their native languages or practice their traditions. The government provided so little financing that the students often were malnourished. And many were emotionally, physically or even sexually abused.

Sources

• Vatican News
• Crux
• Catholic News Service

Francis hopes to reconcile with Canada's indigenous people for the abuse indigenous children suffered at mostly church-run residential schools.

Hundreds of possible grave sites have been found at the schools.

Catholic missionaries are among those responsible for these abuses.

Compensation is sought. So is the return of indigenous artefacts. Many want school records released and are asking for support to extradite accused abusers.

A 15th-century papal edict justifying their dispossession by colonialists must also be rescinded, indigenous people say.

Francis told reporters accompanying him on the plane that his six-day visit must be handled with care.

His trip follows his April 1 apology from the Vatican for the trauma Canada's indigenous peoples have suffered. He admitted these traumas occurred as a result of a church-enforced policy to eliminate their culture and assimilate them into a Canadian, Christian society.

While his April 1 apology was acknowledged, many called for him to apologise on Canadian soil.

Between 1881 and 1996 more than 150,000 indigenous children were separated from their families and brought to residential schools.

Many were starved, beaten and sexually abused in a system Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission called "cultural genocide".

A top papal adviser says early in his papacy Francis had said no single culture can claim a hold on Christianity.

The Church cannot demand people on other continents to imitate the European way of expressing the faith, he stressed at the time.

Although it's not yet known if Francis intends to apologise on this trip, Chief Vernon Saddleback of Samson Cree Nation says it would be well received.

"For him to come out here to do it in person — I can't say enough how important that is because that's where healing begins, when you start to own up to actions.

"When you own up to actions you can start the process of walking towards forgiveness."

The penitential trip won't be easy for the 85-year-old Francis or for residential school survivors and their families.

"It is an understatement to say there are mixed emotions," said Chief Desmond Bull of the Louis Bull Tribe.

Non-indigenous Canadians are also approving of Francis's visit.

"It's really important that he's coming over here for healing and reconciliation and hope," says one.

Another, who is not a Catholic, says the Pope's trip is an important one.

"I think that it's needed.

"I think coming from a top level like that means a lot to the indigenous people, really."

Source

• The Province
• AP News
• Reuters

He has described the trip to North America as a "penitential pilgrimage".

But who exactly are these Indigenous people of Canada and how much do they consist of the country's population?

First Nations, Inuit and Métis

The history of Canada is intimately linked to that of the Aboriginals. This term refers to the first peoples of North America and their descendants.

The Canadian Constitution recognizes three groups of Aboriginal peoples: Indians - also known as First Nations - Inuit and Métis.

Members of the First Nations make up approximately 61% of the Aboriginal population, the Métis 32%, and the Inuit approximately 4%. These three groups each have their own distinct histories, languages, cultural practices and beliefs.

According to a 2016 census, more than 1.67 million Canadians identified themselves as Aboriginal. That's only about 5% of the national population.

But it is the fastest growing population in Canada, as well as the youngest. In 2016, approximately 44% of all Aboriginals were under the age of 25.

Where Aboriginal Canadians live

Prior to colonization, the various Aboriginal peoples had their own political structures established in territories whose sometimes shifting borders were modified by the colonists.

Many Canadian territories today are still called "Aboriginal territories" or "traditional territories".

These names refer to geographic areas that retain strong ties with the history of Aboriginal Canadians.

Nearly half of these Indigenous peoples live in these areas, while several groups are still fighting for government recognition of their traditional lands.

The rest of the Aboriginals (more than 50%) have moved to urban areas.

Most live in large cities such as Vancouver (British Columbia), Winnipeg (Manitoba), Edmonton (Alberta) or Montreal (Quebec).

Are Aboriginal Canadians citizens like all others?

Aboriginals saw their way of life disrupted by the colonists. Their integration into Canadian society — often linked to violent and forced acculturation — has been slow and painful.

The suicide rate among First Nations youth is five to six times higher than the national average, the employment rate of the Aboriginal population (58%) was still lower than that of the non-Aboriginal population (62%) in 2019, and, despite improvements, access to food resources and public services remains reduced or unequal.

These abject social and psychological consequences are often blamed on the "Indian Act", the pass system, the reservations and the residential schools.

The Indian Act was passed in 1876 as a way to force First Nations people to abandon their culture and adopt a Euro-Canadian way of life.

The Act has evolved, but to this day has not been abolished. It still sets out the terms and conditions for obtaining Indian status and rules regarding reservations and the management of community resources.

The residential schools, on the other hand, tried to force young Aboriginals to assimilate Euro-Canadian culture by eradicating their ancestral habits and customs, and to convert them to Christianity.

Subsidized by the Canadian government, these residential schools were operated by members of the Catholic, Anglican and Presbyterian Churches.

And there have been well-documented moral and physical violence.

During his July 24-30 visit to Canada, Pope Francis is expected to ask forgiveness of the Aboriginals for the abuse that occurred in the Catholic-run schools.

• Alice Clavier, from Canada, occasionally writes for La Croix International.
• First published in La-Croix International. Republished with permission.

There's also a real risk that some people might trick others into buying non-existent tickets, organisers say.

"It is sad and troubling that anyone would try to resell free tickets for an event with Pope Francis."

The papal Mass is set to take place on July 26 at Edmonton's 60,000-seat Commonwealth Stadium.

Scalping papal Mass tickets has happened before. Scalpers had a go in Philadelphia and New York in 2015. In fact, tickets to the Central Park procession were being offered on Craigslist for as much as $100,000. One New Jersey scalper insisted "It's the American way."

Mexico had the same issue in 2016. So did the Vatican for Pope John Paul II's beatification in 2011. As far back as 1989, the L.A. Times reported that scalpers in Finland were asking for $160 for tickets to Pope John Paul II's visit there.

A situation like a papal Mass, in which one can obtain up to six tickets at a time without having to show identification at the gate, is custom-made for scalping.

Custom made or not, it's still cheeky. As the spokesperson for the papal trip to Canada, Laryssa Waler, said "People profiting off this is really disrespectful."

From a neoliberal economic perspective, however, the only things to be "respected" here are the demands of the market.

Francis is a compelling world figure. People will pay $200-plus to see him, just as they would pay to see a star or attend a big show.

Francis has repeatedly highlighted the erosion of human society and the planet caused by uncontrolled, deregulated capitalism.

Every ticket scooped up by scalpers is one less ticket available to the people Francis is going to Canada to see, ordinary Catholics and in particular Indigenous Canadians. They don't have thousands of dollars to come to Rome to attend a public papal audience.

Every ticket bought by a scalper represents someone, unseen and unheard, who won't be able to go.

Please don't buy them, organisers say.

Source

• America Magazine

The Verna J. Kirkness Education Foundation announced this week that it had decided to give back the endowment, received in December 2017, to the Sisters of St Ann, a Catholic order whose nuns taught at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.

Board chair Tony Williams says the foundation launched a year-long investigation into the Sisters of St Ann after the discovery of 215 suspected unmarked graves near the residential school last May. Continue reading

The Rev. Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, visited the James Smith Cree Nation and heard stories shared by residential school survivors.

"It was the church that permitted it," said Welby. "Building hell and putting children into it and staffing it. I am more sorry than I could ever, ever begin to express." Continue reading

Paradis studied the traditional beliefs of the First Nations peoples for a long time before he began adding some of their elements - like the sun dance - into liturgical celebrations.

"I'm still a novice, but I'm incorporating indigenous dances and practices that allow me to express my Catholic faith differently," he explains.

"But there are questions: does God want me to get so close to indigenous spiritualities? It's a long road of reflection.

Second Vatican Council

Louise Royer of the Archdiocese of Montreal says a tentative movement towards inculturation took place after the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).

"It introduced practices and symbols of traditional spiritualities," she says.

"Many of the faithful resisted this movement because they wanted to distance themselves from what could be perceived — and had been presented to them — as pagan practices. But the movement continues."

Indigenous spiritual practices were demonised and outlawed in Canada until the middle of the 20th century. Christianity was promoted.

Effect on indigenous peoples

A member of the Abenaki tribe says she had no choice but to be Catholic as a child.

"At the time, it was like we needed to silence our beliefs. But the priests didn't know what we had in our heads, who exactly we were praying to," she recalls.

"As my grandfather used to say, whether you say 'Great Spirit' or 'God', they are not two different figures," says an anthropologist originally from an Abenaki reserve north of Montreal.

Father Peter Bisson says the Society of Jesus has made more efforts over the last decade to better understand First Nations spiritualities.

He began studying the topic in 2008 - the same year Canada set up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to better understand the effects of residential schools on the First Nations peoples.

They heard that indigenous children forced to attend these institutions were forbidden from speaking in their native languages. Many were abused and thousands died.

The Commission concluded with recommendations for greater equality.

Indigenous beliefs and Catholicism

Bisson has deepened his understanding of indigenous beliefs by organising discussion groups chaired by First Nations peoples.

"It's just listening, not a discussion. It's not about solving problems like those caused by residential schools.

"We're leaving behind our old habits from colonialism, of wanting to offer them something, as if we know more than they do... It's a humbling challenge for the church."

Indigenous peoples more naturally emphasise the spiritual aspects of life, he says.

"Their relationship with nature is clearer, more direct. And now, with the ecological transition, we need the help of indigenous spiritualities to reintegrate a strong spiritual connection between us and our environment.

"I have two hopes: the decolonisation of our Christian mindsets, and ecology. If we are more interested in nature, we will listen more to natives and their beliefs, and we will understand each other better."

Source

• La Croix
• Image: Canadian Encyclopedia

The Most Rev. Justin Welby, head of the Church of England and leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, is visiting Canada from April 29 to May 3 to highlight the church's desire to pursue reconciliation with indigenous people. Besides the local stop, he will meet with Anglican indigenous leaders and other indigenous people in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and Toronto.

Welby's visit on May 2 to the Woodland Cultural Centre, which is adjacent to the former Mohawk Institute residential school, will include a meeting with survivors. A prayer service with indigenous leaders will be held afterwards at the nearby Mohawk Chapel which was built in 1785 and is the first Protestant church in Upper Canada.

The Mohawk Institute is considered Canada's longest-running residential school, operating from 1828 to 1970. It was run by the Anglican Church that has apologised to indigenous communities for its role in the school system. Continue reading

Popular French-language publications such as Tintin, Asterix and Lucky Luke are among the titles purged from the shelves.

The discarded books were deemed subversive and allegedly perpetuated racist stereotypes, with illustrations or language deemed offensive to minorities.

About 30 of the discarded books were then burned in a so-called "purification" ceremony.

Radio-Canada says over the past two years the seven French-language schools run by the Providence Catholic School removed nearly 5,000 books from their shelves.

According to a school board spokesperson, the initiative was intended to "make a gesture of openness and reconciliation".

Rather than sweetening the atmosphere, the issue is souring the campaign trail to Canada's federal elections, due to be held on 20 September.

In particular, the purge of Catholic books is exacerbating positions on the issue of identity, which is described as being "highly sensitive".

At such a level of naïve optimism, the most just of causes does not need an adversary, Radio-Canada says.

As CathNews has reported several times over the past few months, the trauma caused by the Canadian residential schools scandal will haunt Canadian society for a long time.

Overcoming the trauma requires the patient work of memory and dialogue, Jérôme Chapuis, editor-in-chief of La Croix newspaper says.

In his view, taking a careful, patient approach to trauma is the exact opposite of what's being promoted by supporters of the "cancel culture", which is a culture of erasure and forgetting.

"Such matters are too serious to be settled with a tweet or the strike of a match."

Chapuis then observes: "The lesson applies to us as well. All societies are grappling with their present or past demons.

"When we claim to reconcile cultures, the last thing we should do is to give in to emotion or naivety."

Source

• La Croix
• Image: Wikipedia

His story doesn't begin with a stranger in shadow-black darkening the door of his log cabin, but it is the first thing he mentions.

It was the day in 1955 the priest came with papers in hand and the determination to steal away Dave Rundle, 10, and his brother Lawrence, 5, from their parents and grandparents, to force them into Fort Alexander Residential School.

The priest knocked. Rundle (pictured) opened the door to the towering figure in his black cassock.

"And it wasn't Johnny Cash," says the now 75-year-old with a chuckle. He pardons the joke. "Humour sometimes helps."

Rundle's mother and the priest spoke some words incoherent to young ears, and after a time, his mother signed the papers and told the boys to get ready to leave. The priest put them into the back of a Ford Model T, where three other Indigenous boys waited.

As the car started off, clunking along the dirt path, Rundle and his brother turned back to look out the window. His mother and grandmother stood, watching them leave.

"They were crying," says Rundle. "My brother and I started crying because we saw our parents and we were going away. And the three other boys in the vehicle, they too started to cry."

For the next five years, Rundle and his brother would be separated from family, who moved to Winnipeg to find work, 10 months of the year. They would be robbed of familial love and caring. They would be degraded and hurt and denied their language and culture.

However, Rundle's story truly began in his first 10 years, at what is now called Sagkeeng First Nation, when he hauled water from the river for his mother, when his grandmother told him stories and taught him to be kind and honourable when his grandfather showed him how to set snares on rabbit tracks and said to him: "When you hunt deer, you need to know the habits of the animal you're hunting."

It was a story told in Anishinaabe.

"It was the best time of my life. I was so happy," says Rundle. "It was a good life. We weren't rich at all. We were piss poor, but we had lots to eat."

The priest that took him from this life drove him to Fort Alexander Residential School — a huge, three-story building, a church and a groundskeeper's cabin surrounded by Manitoba prairie. It was run by a Catholic order of missionary nuns called the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

Oblate nuns, which included this order and others, ran most of the Roman Catholic residential schools in Canada.

"We walked upstairs and came into the reception area," says Rundle, "and that's where the nuns met us."

The nuns made the boys strip and bathe, and they cut their hair with scissors and mechanical clippers, speaking all the while in English, a language neither Rundle nor his brother understood.

When this was done, Rundle and his brother thought they could go. They put on their jackets and started walking home. When a group of boys ran after them, they fled, thinking they were in for a beating. But the boys caught up.

"There was such a sense of hopelessness, loneliness. Who could you tell that would do anything about it? There was no nurturing, There was no one to speak to if you were feeling down or something was bothering you. There was a sense of bitterness, anger, frustration."

"They didn't hurt us. They just said you can't go home. You got to stay here," says Rundle. "Of course, that made us cry again because we wanted to go home."

Rundle and his brother were captive.

"There was such a sense of hopelessness, loneliness. Who could you tell that would do anything about it?" says Rundle. "There was no nurturing, There was no one to speak to if you were feeling down or something was bothering you.

"There was a sense of bitterness, anger, frustration."

The boys had no supports but themselves when nuns humiliated a boy for peeing himself, even, as happened to Rundle, when they had asked to use the bathroom. They could not tell their parents when they were smacked across the head or the cheek or made to kneel in the corner on hard wooden floors for hours.

Rundle could not seek protection from a priest who told Rundle to pull down his pants, on the pretext of checking his cleanliness, before "he started to masturbate me."

After that assault, Rundle went and sat on a bench. His friends called him to play.

"One of my friends, I caught the look in his eye — as if he knew what the hell had happened," says Rundle.

The boys banded together. They bet their rations of lard and bread on foot races and other contests. Rundle remembers two boys, Elmer Courchene and Phil Fontaine, who took to carrying little Lawrence on their shoulders to keep watch over him.

On Oct. 30, 1990, Fontaine, then-head of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, denounced the physical, emotional and sexual abuse at Fort Alexander in an interview on national television. He called for an inquiry, which would not come until after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada formed in 2008.

In the interview, Fontaine said: "Inevitably, if a group of us get together to talk about our experiences in residential school, in this case the one in Fort Alexander, we end up joking and laughing about what we experienced. And I think that's essentially a way of avoiding embarrassment and shame."

Humour sometimes helps.

Rundle didn't see any deaths but did hear rumours about them. Years later, at a gathering of survivors, a few women who'd been held in the girls' dorms had told him they suspected people had died.

What he did experience first-hand was the loss of family connection. Continue reading

• Image: Winnipeg Free Press

Where to get help

• If you've ever experienced sexual assault or abuse and need to talk to someone call the confidential crisis helpline Safe to Talk on: 0800 044 334 or text 4334. (available 24/7)
• Better Blokes which provides peer support throughout Auckland, including a specific Pacific group.
• Male Survivors Aotearoa offers a range of confidential support at centres across New Zealand - find your closest one here.
• Mosaic - Tiaki Tangata: 0800 94 22 94 (available 11am - 8pm)
• If you have been abused, remember it's not your fault.

Last week, the Cowessess First Nation announced the preliminary discovery of 751 unmarked graves at the former Marieval Indian Residential School.

Meanwhile, the Tk'emlups te Secwepemc First Nation said last month a preliminary scan near the former residential school in Kamloops indicated the remains of an estimated 215 children could be buried at the site.

CBC News looked at the governments and institutions that possess these records, the information they contain, why they're important and the challenges posed in retrieving them.

What is the obligation to hand over these records?

In 2007, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established following the implementation of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, a deal reached with former students, legal counsel for the churches, the Assembly of First Nations, other Indigenous organizations and the federal government.

The TRC was tasked to investigate and create an as-complete-as-possible history of the residential school system in one collection.

Organizations involved in the schools were obliged to "compile and produce all relevant records," said Ry Moran, founding director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) at the University of Manitoba.

Those records were then to be given to the NCTR, which is intended to be their permanent repository.

Who kept these records?

Most records related to the residential schools were held by the federal government and the churches that ran them.

Within the government itself, that would include the Library and Archives Canada, which is the main federal archival repository.

But it also includes different government departments that may have played a role.

There are "a whole host of government entities [that] actually had involvement with the operations of the residential schools in many, many different touch points," Moran said.

"So all of those government departments really had to conduct searches of their record holdings."

As for the religious institutions, many records were held by the Catholic order the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, which operated 48 residential schools. But the Anglican and United Church also ran schools.

Records may also be found in community archives and private collections. For example, just this month, the Royal British Columbia Museum said it has about 250 boxes of materials, a third of which relate to schools run by the Catholic order.

As well, provincial chief coroners and other agencies would have some records of the deaths of children at the residential schools.

"We only have the records of Alberta and B.C. to date," said Raymond Frogner, head of archives for the NCTR.

"We've been in negotiations with every province to get those and we still haven't got an agreement."

What kind of information is in the records?

The records from the Catholic order would include what's known as the Codex Historicus, a daily journal of the operations of the schools.

Overall, the records are about day-to-day operations but could also include admittance records, financial statements, human resource records and teachers' profiles.

It reminds one of the oft-remarked "banality of evil," Frogner said.

"It's these very hum-drum daily operations of the schools until you recognize what's being operated."

For example, the records would likely reveal the Western names forced upon some children, and the lack of quality of the curriculum.

And there would be medical documentation about the children — where deaths and grievous injuries were recorded.

"One of the things we're actually trying to do when we get these records is … recognizing that these aren't just the operations of schools, but these are also the documentations of children's lives," Frogner said.

"We can virtually organize the records around the lives of the students themselves."

What have been some of the challenges in retrieving the records?

In a recent parliamentary committee hearing, Martin Reiher, an assistant deputy minister with the Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations, said that over five million documents were gathered and transferred to the NCTR.

Still, the government has still been resistant to hand over other records, Frogner said. The NCTR is currently in negotiations with Library and Archives Canada, as well as Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC) for more records, he said. Continue reading

• Mark Gollom is a Toronto-based reporter with CBC News. He covers Canadian and U.S. politics and current affairs.
• Image: CBC Canada Radio News