Courtesy: CBC News
Reconciliation Commission calls to action.
The Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mackenzie–Fort Smith in the Northwest Territories says the church has already started to lay the groundwork for implementing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action. The Church’s response calls on all its members to make eight commitments to Indigenous Peoples — including working with Catholic educational institutions to tell the history and experience of Indigenous Peoples and supporting the national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women.N.W.T. resident Paul Andrew says actions will speak louder than words. “Apology, love, respect, honour. Those are action words. You have to put it into action.” Andrew is a residential school survivor, and currently helps other survivors in the N.W.T. through their own healing journeys.
“I know that [the Catholic Church] has apologized for various things, but I don’t know whether they have ever used the word genocide, and those are the kinds of things that make a difference.” Last May, chief justice of the Supreme Court, Beverley McLachlin, made headlines when she said that Canada attempted to commit “cultural genocide” against aboriginal peoples — a statement Justice Murray Sinclair, the chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, agreed with.
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