Pope Francis asks forgiveness for residential schools

In Kamloops (Canada), a former boarding school welcomed, until 1969, indigenous children, torn from their families. “Here, when we were punished, we had to clean the stairs with a toothbrush“, remember Rose Miller, survivor of the Kamloops Indian residential school. She also recounts how a nun beat her with a belt. In Canada, 139 establishments like the one in Kamloops have caused thousands of victims.

At the end of the 19th century, the Canadian state had set up a system of forced assimilation for Amerindian, Métis and Inuit children. They were placed in boarding schools, run by the Catholic Church, and were often victims of violence. “I didn’t remember. My mate told me ‘we were all around you and the nun was swinging you against the board’“, says Rose Pipestem, survivor of the Ermineskin Indian residential school (Canada). In June 2021, 215 bodies of children were discovered, buried near a former residential school. Apologies from Pope Francis, on behalf of the Church Catholic, are a primary step for many survivors.”We finally feel a sense of justice“, assures Wilton Littlechild, survivor of an aboriginal residential school.