WARNING: This story contains disturbing details
Although the word genocide was not heard in any of Pope Francis’ addresses during his week-long trip to Canada, on his flight back to Rome he said that everything he described about the indigenous school system and its forced assimilation of children from the indigenous population, is tantamount to genocide.
“I didn’t use the word genocide because it didn’t come to mind, but I described genocide,” Pope Francis told reporters on the papal flight from Iqaluit to Rome on Friday.
In the past week, the pope visited Edmonton, Quebec City and Iqaluit on a “penitential pilgrimage” of healing, reconciliation and hope between the Catholic Church and indigenous peoples.
Addressing school survivors and their families in Maskwatzis, Alta., Francis expressed deep sorrow for the damage suffered at church-run schools and asked for forgiveness “for the wrong done by so many Christians to the indigenous population.”
The Catholic Church runs more than half of Canada’s schools. More than 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were forced to attend government-funded schools between the 1870s and 1997.
A person holds a protest sign during a public event for Pope Francis on the plaza outside Nakasuk Elementary School in Iqaluit on Friday. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which released its final report in 2015, concluded that the school system constituted cultural genocide.
Since 2021, when the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves in former residential school sites hit the news, many have called what happened more than cultural genocide. Last year, NDP member of parliament Leah Ghazan made an unsuccessful bid for parliament to recognize the boarding school’s experience as genocide, as she believes it meets the UN’s definition of genocide.
The United Nations defines the term as a set of acts committed with “the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national ethnic, racial or religious group,” such as killing members, causing physical or mental injury to members, intentional physical destruction of a whole or partial enforcement of measures to prevent births in a group or forcibly transfer children from the group to another group.
The National Center for Truth and Reconciliation in Winnipeg, which holds the records collected by the TRC, has so far documented 4,118 children who died in the hostels.
In several speeches during the week, Pope Francis described the school system as a policy of assimilation and disenfranchisement and that it harms families by undermining their language, culture and worldview.
“I condemned this, the taking away of children, changing the culture, the consciousness, the traditions, the so-called race. The whole culture,” Pope Francis told reporters.
“Yes, that’s a technical word, genocide. I didn’t use it because it didn’t occur to me. But yes, I described it. Yes, it’s genocide.”
Abolition of the Doctrine of Discovery
Indigenous people from coast to coast are calling for the papal bulls that make up the Doctrine of Discovery to be rescinded.
The calls grew louder at each stop of the papal visit, arguing that the papal bulls, or edicts, were the root cause of the genocide against Indigenous peoples and laid the groundwork for Canada to institute assimilationist policies such as the boarding school system.
In this photo, taken moments before the start of mass at the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, two people are seen holding a banner reading “Repeal the Doctrine” in reference to the Doctrine of Discovery. (Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters)
When asked about issuing a statement on the Doctrine of Discovery, Francis did not directly answer the question, but referred to it as a doctrine of colonization.
“It’s true, it’s bad. It’s unfair. Even today it’s being used,” he said. “This mentality that we are superior and indigenous people don’t count, so we have to work on … what was done, which was bad, but with the awareness that even today that same colonialism exists.”
Support is available for anyone affected by their dorm experience or the latest reports.
A national Indian school crisis line has been set up to provide support for ex-students and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis services by calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419.
Mental health counseling and crisis support are also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through the Hope for Wellness Hotline at 1-855-242-3310 or via online chat at www.hopeforwellness.ca.
Add Comment