CANADA
Metro
By Kristy Kirkup
The Canadian Press
OTTAWA – The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations wants the prime minister to urge Pope Francis to apologize for his church’s role in Canada’s residential school legacy.
Perry Bellegarde says this is a “prime opportunity” for the prime minister to raise the issue.
Stephen Harper is to meet the Pope in the Vatican on Thursday. The meeting comes exactly seven years after the prime minister issued his own apology in the House of Commons to school survivors.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was tasked with interviewing thousands of residential school students and documenting their experiences, issued its key findings and 94 recommendations last week. They included a call for a papal apology on Canadian soil.
Bellegarde said that would help bring closure to students who suffered atrocities and abuses at the schools, many of which were run by the Roman Catholic Church.
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