One (Legault) refuses to acknowledge systemic racism; the other (Francis), to accept the responsibility of the Catholic Church in the residential school system for Native people. In both cases, it is a matter of preserving the image of the institution they represent. For François Legault, Quebec is not racist: only certain people are. For Pope Francis, it is not for the Catholic Church, but for several Christians, that we must apologize.
The one who seems to me to have the right ideas, and the words to say it, is Justin Trudeau. “We will continue to take meaningful measures to counter systemic racism and discrimination…” And, before the pope, he hoped for an apology, “for the role that the Roman Catholic Church, as an institution, has played in the ill-treatment spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical, and sexual experiences that Indigenous children suffered in Church-run residential schools.”
These are the words that needed to be heard and which resonated well.
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