Sask. Indigenous leaders to meet Pope Francis, call for residential school apology

Several Indigenous delegates from Saskatchewan will be meeting with Pope Francis in Vatican City next week, in what they hope will be the first steps towards a papal trip to Canada to apologize for the Catholic church’s role in Canada's residential school system.

Marie-Anne Day Walker-Pelletier is Canada’s longest-serving chief of nearly 40 years and will be representing Saskatchewan for the Assembly of First Nations (AFN).

“I’m interested in going because I want to be the voice of our survivors, our ancestors and those children that never came home,” Day Walker-Pelletier told CTV News.

She endured seven years of abuse at the Lebret Residential School in Qu'Appelle, Sask. and says she lost touch with her language and culture.

Day Walker-Pelletier will have three minutes to speak with Pope and hopes her words will convince him to apologize on Canadian soil.

“He needs to come and tell our mosoms and kokums and our families and communities that he is truly sorry, that he needs to be there and it needs to come from his heart,” she said.

Elders and residential school survivors with Métis Nation-Saskatchewan (MNS) will also be joining AFN to share the effects on families and the legacy of intergenerational trauma that affects Metis people today.

In a news release on Thursday, MSN says the Métis experience remains largely forgotten and ignored when it comes to residential school stories.

“Our kids went to those schools too and all those unmarked graves. There’s going to be a percentage of those children that were Métis kids too … it’s important to hear the voice of the Métis,” MNS Vice-President Michelle LeClair told CTV News.

Île-à-la-Crosse school operated from the 1820s until the mid-1970s and housed children from across northern Saskatchewan. While the school is one of the oldest in Canada, MNS says survivors have been denied compensation and recognition from the federal government that others have received.

Bishop Mark Hagemoen says the meeting is “significant and exciting” and in order to show support, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon will be holding a day of prayer and burning a flame on Monday to give a blessing as Indigenous leaders meet the Pope.

“Forgiveness and reconciliation is a journey and it’s marked by very significant steps and those steps must be honest, truthful and heartfelt.”