The symbol is not insignificant. By offering Pope Francis a pair of beaded moccasins at his waist as a sign of their willingness to forgive those who have so deeply offended them, the Canadian Aboriginal delegations dispatched to Rome above all had the finesse to remind the sovereign pontiff of a necessary truth. Once the apologies have been presented, which was done on Friday with great decorum, the long and painful road to reconciliation remains to be paved. As well venture there well fitted.
Aboriginal people are not fooled. At home, in their lands, where the pope is expected in July to continue his restorative process, they still hope that contrition will be transformed into concrete gestures. Justin Trudeau reiterated on Friday his desire to work to shed light on the uprooting suffered in residential schools and on the sexual and physical violence experienced by many survivors. But we cannot say that there has been much progress on this front. No more than that of access to drinking water on the reserves, a thorn in the side of the Canadian government, considered to be a very poor student in the matter at the UN.
Similar procrastination has been noted on the side of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. Since its lukewarm apology delivered by letter in the indifference of a Friday afternoon in September, the Conference has still not given access to its archives on the residential schools that approximately 150,000 indigenous children in the country were forced to attend. . The Catholic Church has also failed to deliver the $55 million promised to Indigenous communities for their healing, which includes the $25 million it was to raise through the “Indian Residential Schools Settlement”… from 2006.
With the shock of the unworthy death of Joyce Echaquan at the Joliette hospital in 2020, one would have thought that in Quebec, the repair would go better. Instead, we learned on Tuesday that the Legault government has given up on including the notion of cultural security in the Act respecting health services and social services, believing that it will run out of time to do so by the end of the parliamentary session… in June ! Blowing on the embers, Quebec had the day before rejected a proposal aimed at strengthening the protection of indigenous students, as recommended by the Viens commission. All this after two and a half years of fruitless procrastination on the subject.
In Rome, surely the First Nations, Inuit and Métis people dispatched to the occasion had all of this in mind when they welcomed the historic papal apology that came after a week of thoughtful exchanges. Along with essential forgiveness, Pope Francis admitted to “shame” and “outrage,” two words that made a big impression on the delegations. The misfortune is that we have used them a lot, there as here.
The Catholic Church, let us remember, is used to dissonant discourse. While the pope spoke of justice and truth with the Aboriginal people, Father Johannes Rivoire spent peaceful days in France, where he took refuge to avoid a trial in Canada for multiple sex crimes alleged in Nunavut. In a flash, a new accusation brought against the Oblate missionary gave rise to a Canada-wide arrest warrant on Tuesday. It will be interesting to see if the Church wants to get involved this time. And how.
For this battle as for all the others, forgiveness is only one stage. The time has come to get going. And let the boots follow the chops! Or, rather here, moccasins.