More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
As residential school survivors seek to heal from trauma that has stretched across generations, some see no path forward without a formal apology from the Pope on Canadian soil.
Such an apology is one of the 94 calls to action the Truth and Reconciliation Commission put forth back in 2015.
"We have asked that he comes to our sacred land and issue that apology and acknowledge the damage and the hurt and the harm that the Catholic church has done to our survivors and intergenerational trauma survivors," said Assembly of First Nations National Chief RoseAnne Archibald.
One such survivor is Roland Desjarlais, who in the 1950s spent nine years at the Muskowekwan Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan, a stone's throw away from his actual home.
"I was born and raised over there about a hundred yards," he told CTV National News while at the site of the former residential school. "I was about seven years old looking at my mother and I could not go see her."
In the dorms where children slept, silent tears would flow, Desjarlais said. The trauma of being at the school was too much for some -- wetting the bed was common -- only leading to further humiliation.
"We'd have to take our sheets down with us and they would put the sheets over our heads," he said. "We'd stand in the middle while all the rest of the kids ate their suppers around us, and we'd stand with the wet sheets over our heads."
Stories like these haunt residential school survivors across the country who are still in search of healing.
Last week, Canada's Catholic bishops offered an olive branch to Indigenous communities with a joint apology, followed by a pledge this week of $30 million within five years to go toward healing and reconciliation initiatives across the country.
Although some Indigenous leaders, Archibald among them, are skeptical of the church after unfulfilled financial promises in the past.
As for a papal apology, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) announced in June that a delegation of Indigenous leaders would visit the Vatican in December to address the issue.
"We are hoping that and we're exploring the possibility of an apology after listening to the survivors that Pope Francis would respond in the appropriate way," William McGrattan, co-treasurer of the CCCB, told CTV National News.
But Archibald refuses to visit the Vatican, as the Pope has been asked to come to Canada instead.
"I will not travel halfway around the world to maybe get an apology," Archibald said. "That doesn't make any sense."
Apology or no apology, survivors like Desjarlais are still faced with the trauma of residential schools.
Desjarlais has tried to put it behind him by focusing on forgiveness and the future.
"Try to walk away from anger and look forward," he said. "I've learnt to accept what was and move on with my own life."
----------
If you are a former residential school student in distress, or have been affected by the residential school system and need help, you can contact the 24-hour Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419
Additional mental-health support and resources for Indigenous people are available here.
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
An orca whale calf that has been stranded in a B.C. lagoon for weeks after her pregnant mother died swam out on her own early Friday morning.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
Devastating tornadoes tore across parts of eastern Nebraska and northeast Texas Friday as a multi-day severe thunderstorm event ramped up in the central United States, injuring at least three people.
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Donald Trump's defence team attacked the credibility Friday of the prosecution's first witness in his hush money case, seeking to discredit testimony detailing a scheme between Trump and a tabloid to bury negative stories to protect the Republican's 2016 presidential campaign.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.