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Ndp to Force Debate Thursday on Papal Apology for Residential Schools

By Rachel Gilmore
iPolitics
April 23, 2018

https://ipolitics.ca/2018/04/23/ndp-to-force-debate-thursday-on-papal-apology-for-residential-schools/

NDP MP Charlie Angus.

This Thursday, MPs will debate and vote on an NDP motion calling on Parliament to, among other things, request a long-awaited Papal apology for the Catholic Church’s role in the residential school system.

“This is saying we need to do the right thing here. This is a moral call about moral leadership,” said NDP MP Charlie Angus.

“We’re calling to the church to say it’s time to fess up, to close this chapter and be part of the true process of reconciliation.”

The New Democrats have dedicated their opposition day to the motion, which invites the Pope to issue a formal apology for the Catholic Church’s role in residential schools. It also asks the church to pay monies owed to residential school survivors — to the tune of roughly $23 million, according to Angus — and to turn over any relevant documents or historical records dealing with residential schools.

While the NDP introduced a similar motion on Wednesday, it required unanimous consent to pass. That motion failed when a small handful of Conservative MPs voted against it. Conservative MP Garnett Genuis was the most vocal opponent, citing concerns about the division of church and state.

“For Parliament to get into dictating (the church) in this way, I don’t see that as appropriate,” he told reporters Wednesday.

Angus rejected Genuis’ concern.

“Church and state have to come together at this point,” Angus said.

“This was a deliberate government policy, so it’s only fair that the government takes responsibility and so does the church.”

Unlike the NDP’s previous effort, Thursday’s motion does not require unanimous consent. That means that even if Genuis votes against the motion, it still has a good chance of passing. Liberal MPs voted alongside the NDP on Wednesday and, if they do so again Thursday, they will give Angus and his colleagues the boon they need to watch Parliament act on their request.

It wouldn’t be the first time the government has requested an apology from Pope Francis on the issue of residential schools. Trudeau asked the Pope for one when he travelled to the Vatican in late March and said he left with the sense that the Pope was open to the idea.

Just under a month ago, Bishop Lionel Gendron, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, responded to the request for an apology from Pope Francis. He wrote an open letter to Indigenous Canadians, stating that “after carefully considering the request (for an apology) and extensive dialogue with the bishops of Canada, he felt that he could not personally respond.”

Gendron appeared alongside Archbishop Richard Gagnon on Parliament Hill Wednesday to justify the response.

“The Pope never said he wouldn’t apologize,” Gagnon said.

The two bishops, however, provided no clarity on whether the Pope intends to issue an apology in the future.

The Pope has apologized on behalf of the church in the past. Pope Benedict penned a letter in 2010 to Irish victims of sexual abuse at the hands of the clergy. In 2015, Pope Francis issued an apology in Bolivia to Indigenous peoples in the Americas for the “grave sins” of colonialism.

Should the NDP motion pass and Parliament extend the Pope yet another invitation to apologize, Angus said he remains hopeful the pontiff will say yes.

“We have full, full, full confidence that Pope Francis will understand and will want to respond, and I think a formal invitation from the Parliament of Canada, from the people of Canada, will help close this chapter,” Angus said.

 

 

 

 

 




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