When Pope Francis said, on his way out of Canada, that he believes what happened in this country’s residential schools amounted to genocide, what many Indigenous people across the country heard was a long-delayed acknowledgement of an obvious truth.
Ghislain Picard, the Assembly of First Nations regional chief for Quebec and Labrador, said the Pope’s comments, which he made during his flight back to Rome at the end of a six-day Canadian tour, are a sign of progress.
