BREAKING B.C. serial killer Robert Pickton hospitalized after prison attack
British Columbia serial killer Robert Pickton sustained life-threatening injuries in a Quebec prison Sunday in what officials described as a 'major assault.'
When 48 Catholic church entities signed on to fundraise $25 million for survivors under the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, it was spelled out they would do so through their “best efforts.”
Ken Young puts it another way.
“It was a weasel clause,” the former Manitoba regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations said in a recent interview.
“And they used it.”
In total, the campaign raised less than $4 million. It made up one piece of the compensation package Catholic entities agreed to pay under the settlement struck in 2006 with Ottawa, former students and Indigenous leaders.
Nine years later, a Saskatchewan judge ruled that the church bodies - who had sought to relieve themselves of their remaining obligations - could indeed walk away.
“They said, 'We used our best efforts and we failed,”' recalled Young, who is himself a survivor of residential schools.
“I was disappointed.”
That history set the stage for a new promise Canadian bishops made last September that dioceses would put $30 million toward initiatives that offer healing opportunities for residential school survivors, their relatives and larger communities.
The discovery last year of what are believed to be hundreds of unmarked graves at former schools in Western Canada also shone a fresh spotlight on the failures of Catholic entities to raise the funds for survivors in the past.
Now, bishops are preparing for the impending arrival of Pope Francis, who is expected to apologize for the Roman Catholic Church's role in operating residential schools.
Catholic leaders are seeking donations to help support his visit, including through the sale of what a spokeswoman said will be “modest quantities” of T-shirts, hats and bandanas.
“Any small profits will be directed towards the papal visit and the ongoing healing and reconciliation journey,” said Laryssa Waler.
While the Vatican is thought to hold considerable wealth, fundraising for reconciliation has been undertaken by Canadian Catholic entities. Leaders say the church in Canada has a decentralized structure, meaning decisions are made by individual dioceses.
Bishops are members of a national assembly called the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. The group has said it wasn't a party to the original settlement where the “best efforts” fundraiser originated, but nonetheless acknowledged its failure and said it drew important lessons from what happened.
Those lessons, the conference said, prompted it to establish the Indigenous Reconciliation Fund and appoint Indigenous board members to oversee it.
The fund, registered as a charity in March, is accepting contributions as well as reviewing proposals for where money could go, the conference said.
The organization has also promised to provide public updates on the progress made toward the $30-million target, which it has pledged to reach by January 2027.
On Monday, it announced that dioceses have contributed $4.6 million to the fund so far.
For Archbishop of Regina Don Bolen, who oversees a diocese that includes 25 First Nations communities, it's all about building relationships and prioritizing the work of reconciliation. “We said we're making a financial commitment.”
The archdiocese has set a goal of contributing $2 million, and has raised $1.5 million so far, he said.
As part of its efforts, the archdiocese put on hold a multimillion-dollar campaign to fund cathedral renovations and a pastoral centre.
Instead, Bolen recalled, church leaders decided to “approach those donors and say, 'We need to attend to the work of truth and reconciliation first.”'
He said like the wider Canadian public, his parishioners have over the past few years learned more about the legacy of residential schools.
An estimated 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend the government-funded institutions over a century, and the Catholic Church ran about 60 per cent of them. Many children suffered abuse and neglect.
“In the church, it's coming to see history in a new way,” Bolen said, “to see the history of Catholic engagement with Indigenous Peoples in a new lens, really attentive to the experience of suffering.”
That heightened awareness, Bolen said, is one the major differences he sees between the “best efforts” campaign of the past, and the current financial commitment.
“Parishioners were not, for the most part, ready to take up that challenge and didn't see things as many of them do now.”
The federal government announced last week it would provide more than $35 million during the papal visit to Canada to support Indigenous communities, organizations and residential school survivors.
Pope Francis is set to travel to Alberta, Quebec and Nunavut from July 24 to 29.
The Indian Residential Schools Resolution Health Support Program has a hotline to help residential school survivors and their relatives suffering trauma invoked by the recall of past abuse. The number is 1-866-925-4419.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 18, 2022.
British Columbia serial killer Robert Pickton sustained life-threatening injuries in a Quebec prison Sunday in what officials described as a 'major assault.'
One passenger was killed and 30 injured after a Singapore Airlines SIAL.SI flight from London hit severe turbulence en route on Tuesday, forcing it to make an emergency landing in Bangkok, officials and the airline said.
Pierre Poilievre's Conservatives returned to the House of Commons on Tuesday with a renewed call for Speaker Greg Fergus to resign, this time over 'very partisan' and 'inflammatory' language used to promote an upcoming event.
Donald Trump's reelection campaign called 'The Apprentice,' a film about the former U.S. president in the 1980s, 'pure fiction' and vowed legal action following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. But director Ali Abbasi is offering to privately screen the film for Trump.
Anything is possible this week, as far as Canada's weather is concerned, with forecasts ranging from scorching heat in some parts of the country to rain and snow in others.
Nestle NESN.S will market a new, US$5 line of frozen pizzas and protein-enriched pastas in the United States which it says it designed specifically for people taking drugs such as Wegovy or Ozempic for weight loss.
Canada's annual inflation rate slowed to a three-year low of 2.7 per cent in April, matching expectations, and core measures continued to ease, data showed on Tuesday, likely boosting chances of a June interest rate cut.
Amal Clooney is one of the legal experts who recommended that the chief prosecutor of the world's top war crimes court seek arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and leaders of the militant Hamas group.
Members of a Canadian group representing families of those killed when Iranian officials shot down Flight PS752 in January 2020 say they are not sorry to hear of the death of Iran's president.
Public libraries in Atlantic Canada are now lending a broader range of items.
Flashes of purple darting across the sky mixed with the serenading sound of songs will be noticed more with spring in full force in Manitoba.
Catching 'em all with impressive speed, a 7-year-old boy from Windsor, Ont. who only started his competitive Pokémon journey seven months ago has already levelled up to compete at a world championship level.
A sanctuary dedicated to animals with disabilities is celebrating the third birthday of one of its most popular residents.
2b Theatre recently moved into the old Video Difference building, seeking to transform it into an artistic hub, meeting space, and temporary housing unit for visiting performers in Halifax.
A B.C. woman says her service dog pulled her from a lake moments before she had a seizure, saving her life.
A Starbucks fan — whose name is Winter — is visiting Canada on a purposeful journey that began with a random idea at one of the coffee chain's stores in Texas.
Members of Piapot First Nation, students from the University of Winnipeg and various other professionals are learning new techniques that will hopefully be used for ground searches of potential unmarked grave sites in the future.
ALS patient Mathew Brown said he’s hopeful for future ALS patients after news this week of research at Western University of a potential cure for ALS.