The announcement will confirm the Pope’s trip to Edmonton, Quebec City and Iqaluit during the last week of July, according to confidential sources whom the CBC is not identifying because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Aboriginal Issues
Reduce number of Indigenous women in jail, says Canadian association
Indigenous women across this country were appalled Thursday, May 5, to learn that First Nations, Métis, and Inuit women now account for 50 per cent of the prisoners being held in a Federal Correctional Institution, even though they make up just five per cent of Canada’s female population.
AFN national chief asks UN to investigate Canada’s role in residential schools
Assembly of First Nations National Chief RoseAnne Archibald asked the United Nations on Monday to launch an investigation into Canada’s possible role in violations of human rights associated with residential schools.
Archibald said she wants the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, along with other UN officials, to probe Canada’s role in the residential school system in response to the reported discovery near former residential school sites of hundreds of unmarked graves believed to contain the remains of children.
Vatican have an arson squad?
Pope Francis to make 3 Canadian stops in July to meet residential school survivors, sources say
Pope Francis is expected to visit at least three cities during a late July trip to Canada, CBC News has learned.
Sources involved in the planning of the trip say the Pope will likely make stops in Edmonton, Quebec City and Iqaluit during what is scheduled to be about a four-day trip to the country. CBC News is not identifying the confidential sources because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The pontiff initially announced plans for the visit during his Vatican meetings on April 1 with Indigenous delegates from Canada, where he offered an initial apology for the actions of individual Roman Catholic Church members in Canada’s residential schools.
I wonder if Francis will participate in a ceremonial church burning?
Woman who threw paint on St. Jude’s Parish in Vancouver must apologize to congregants
A woman who pleaded guilty to splashing paint on the wall of a Vancouver church at the height of protests following the probable discovery of unmarked graves at residential schools has received a conditional discharge, meaning she will have to pay a fine but will not receive a criminal record.
Pope Francis apologizes for residential schools at Vatican
Pope Francis has delivered a formal apology for the grave harm caused by Canada’s harrowing residential school system.
In a livestreamed audience with more than 190 Indigenous survivors, elders, knowledge keepers, youth and community leaders on Friday, he said he was “deeply grieved” by stories of abuse, hardship and discrimination he heard throughout the week.
Pope Francis has apologized for the conduct of some members of the Roman Catholic Church in Canada's residential school system.
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— CBC News (@CBCNews) April 1, 2022
Toronto releases first ever Reconciliation Action Plan to repair relationship with Indigenous Peoples
Mayor John Tory released the plan Wednesday morning which aims to guide the city’s actions to advance reconciliation through to 2032.
The 28 goals are spread through five themes, including actions to restore truth, actions to right relations and share power, actions for justice, actions to make financial reparations and actions for the Indigenous Affairs Office.
Oblates to open archives
The Catholic religious order that operated some residential schools in Canada says it will open its archives in Rome to researchers.
Conrad Black: No exaggeration needed
Justice must be done, at last
Once again we are indebted to the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and retired judge Brian Giesbrecht for their diligent research that has unearthed the proportions of some of the embellished claims about Canada’s past treatment of its Indigenous population and particularly some of the claims made by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) about “missing children.” There is no doubt that there are very serious legitimate grievances that Aboriginal people rightfully hold about the wrongs committed against them in Canada, including very serious abuses that were perpetrated against children in the residential school system. But all Canadians of European extraction are the subject of blood libels by the TRC and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former Supreme Court chief justice Beverley McLachlin and others of comprehensive racism and genocidal intent against this country’s Indigenous people.
First Nations chief warns MPs as Emergencies Act inquiry begins
Parliamentarians convened a first-of-its-kind inquiry into Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s use of the Emergencies Act on Monday, the same day the Assembly of First Nations national chief expressed concerns over the act’s ability to label activists as criminals.
N.W.T. MLA calls for hiring freeze on non-Indigenous applicants
A Northwest Territories MLA is calling for the territorial government to stop hiring non-Indigenous people for one year.
Hay River South MLA Rocky Simpson called for the change in the N.W.T. legislature Monday in a question to the Minister of Human Resources, Caroline Wawzonek.
“We need to be bold if we want to see change,” he said.
B.C. introducing Indigenous coursework requirement for secondary students
B.C. high school students will soon be required to complete Indigenous-focused coursework in order to graduate.
The requirement is scheduled to take effect in the 2023-24 school year, the provincial Ministry of Education said in a news release Friday.
The new graduation requirement is being implemented “in collaboration with the First Nations Education Steering Committee,” according to the province.
’Squaw’ still shows up in more than 100 California location names. A proposed law would ban it
“AB 2022 would ban the use of the S-word and establish a process for renaming locations with that offensive racial and sexist term which began as derogatory word used against Native American women. For decades, Native Americans have argued against the designation’s use because behind that expression is the disparagement of Native women that contributes to the crisis of missing and murdered people in our community,” Ramos said in a statement announcing the bill.
Mass graves mystery shows the danger of the politics of hysteria
When the anthropologist Sarah Beaulieu reported that she had found 215 unmarked graves near Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia last year, the story caused a sensation. A wave of hysteria engulfed the Canadian media and political landscape. But eight months later, mystery surrounds the case, as not a single body has been found – and it is unclear if there are any plans for excavation.
What Beaulieu’s ground-penetrating radar scan found were 215 areas that showed soil disturbances such as tree roots, metal and stones – but not bodies. One bone and a tooth were discovered, but she acknowledged at the time that without conducting a proper forensic investigation no “definitive” conclusions could be drawn. Nevertheless, the media and the political class were quick to characterise what had been found as mass graves.