While the word genocide did not appear in any of Pope Francis’ speeches during a weeklong trip to Canada, on his flight back to Rome, he said that everything he described about the residential school system and the forced assimilation of indigenous children amounted to genocide. . “I didn’t use the word genocide because it didn’t occur to me, but I described genocide,” Pope Francis told reporters on the papal flight from Iqaluit to Rome on Friday. Last week, the Pope visited Edmonton, Quebec City and Iqaluit on a “penitential pilgrimage” of healing, reconciliation and hope between the Catholic Church and Indigenous people. Addressing school survivors and their families in Maskwacis, Alta., Francis expressed deep sorrow for the damage suffered in church-run schools and asked for forgiveness “for the harm that so many Christians have done to indigenous peoples.” The Catholic Church ran half of the residential schools in Canada. 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 community event for Pope Francis in 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 amounted to cultural genocide. As of 2021, when the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves in former residential school grounds hit the news, many are calling what had happened more than cultural genocide. Last year, NDP MP Leah Gazan made a failed attempt to get parliament to recognize the school’s experience as genocide, as she believes it meets the United Nations’ definition of genocide. The United Nations defines the term as a number 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 harm to members, the intentional physical destruction in whole or in part, imposing measures to prevent births within a group or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. The National Center for Truth and Reconciliation in Winnipeg, which holds the records compiled by the TRC, has documented 4,118 children who died in residential schools so far. In his multiple speeches during the week, Pope Francis described the school system as a policy of assimilation and entitlement, and that it harmed families by undermining their language, culture and worldview. “I condemned it, taking away children, changing the culture, the mind, the traditions, a so-called race. An entire culture,” Pope Francis told reporters. “Yes, it’s a technical word, genocide. I didn’t use it because it didn’t occur to me. But yes, I described it. Yes, it is genocide.”
Abolition of the Doctrine of Discovery
Indigenous peoples from coast to coast to coast have called for the abolition of the papal bulls that make up the Doctrine of Discovery. The calls grew louder at each stop of the papal visit, with arguments that the papal bulls, or decrees, are the root cause of genocide against indigenous peoples and laid the groundwork for Canada to enact assimilation policies such as school housing system. In this photo, taken moments before the start of the Divine Liturgy at the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, two people are seen holding a banner that reads “Abolish the dogma,” 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 spoke of it as a doctrine of colonization. “It’s true, it’s bad. It’s unfair. It’s still used today,” he said. “This mentality, that we are superior and that indigenous people don’t count, that’s why we have to work … what happened was bad, but with the awareness that even today, the same colonialism exists.” Support is available for anyone affected by their residential school experience or recent reports. A national Indian residential school crisis line has been set up to provide support to former students and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419. Mental health counseling and crisis support is also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through the Hope for Wellness hotline at 1-855-242-3310 or online chat at www.hopeforwellness.ca.
