Two killed after collision with truck on Hwy. 417 near Limoges, Ont.
Ontario Provincial Police say two people were killed after a car and a transport truck collided in the westbound lanes of Highway 417 near Limoges, Ont. on Tuesday afternoon.
Pope Francis spoke in three First Nations languages at a sacred pilgrimage site hours after his public mass in Edmonton was called a missed opportunity for not including Indigenous culture or traditions.
On Tuesday, Francis joined hundreds of people at Lac Ste. Anne, northwest of Edmonton, and during a church service, wearing a red Metis sash around his neck, said hello in Nakota, Cree and Blackfoot.
"Aba-wash-did! Tansi! Oki!"
Many cheered.
The site has been important to Indigenous people and Catholics for generations. Francis blessed the lake, smiling broadly, and used a traditional wooden tool with a brush on the end to flick some of the water at outstretched hands in the crowd.
The Pope's liturgy included thoughts on the Roman Catholic Church's past and future relationship with Indigenous Peoples, as well as the important role of Indigenous women in their communities.
"Dear Indigenous brothers and sisters, I have come here as a pilgrim also to say to you how precious you are to me and to the church," Francis said.
"I want the church to be intertwined with you, as tightly woven as the threads of the coloured bands that many of you wear."
It was a stark contrast from the earlier mass in front of thousands at Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium. There, Francis did not address Indigenous Peoples, cultures or traditions much during the event, despite having delivered an apology a day earlier for abuses at Catholic-run residential schools.
"I just don't know what they were thinking," Daryold Corbiere Winkler, a priest in Ottawa who is Anishinaabe, said about the Edmonton service.
"For me, this is a missed opportunity for a mass to celebrate Indigenous traditions and cultural practices. They just didn't. They did the opposite."
Corbiere Winkler said he was optimistic when the mass started with Indigenous drumming and the popemobile drove Francis around the stadium's football field. The Pope blessed and kissed babies and young children who were handed to him and cheers echoed from the stands filled with thousands of people.
Winkler said his hopes were dashed as the service took a traditional turn. He was devastated when the eucharistic prayer was delivered in Latin, considering residential school survivors were there.
"That's the language they would have heard in residential school," he said. "A lot of survivors, that's the mass they heard when they were children."
Angel Dermit said the rigid mass reminded her of church ceremonies from when she was a child at the Lower Post Residential School in British Columbia.
“When I heard the service, it’s a lot different than how I believe in God and how I believe in Jesus," she said.
The Pope focused his homily, the comments following Scripture readings, on the importance of grandparents and the elderly.
Near the end, he prayed for "a future in which the history of violence and marginalization suffered by our Indigenous brothers and sisters is never repeated."
About 65,000 free tickets were available for the mass but many rows of seats were empty, particularly in the upper decks. Organizers estimated there were about 50,000 in attendance. Hats and clothing commemorating the papal visit were sold near an entrance for between $10 and $45.
During the blessing of the eucharist, a person yelled "repeal the doctrine of discovery" — papal documents used in colonization.
Rose-Marie Blair-Isberg travelled from Yukon to attend. The residential school survivor from White River First Nation, who is Catholic, said it felt like the church was "selling their point of view" during the mass.
Edith Didzena held a photo of her mother, Regina Etthidzine, as she sat in the stadium with her children. Didzena, who lives in Bushe River on the Dene Tha' First Nation in Alberta, said her mother went to residential school but died before she could hear the Pope's apology.
On Monday, during a visit to the community of Maskwacis, south of Edmonton, the Pope apologized to residential school survivors and their families for the role members of the church played in the cultural destruction and forced assimilation of Indigenous Peoples.
Patty Crofton, a member of Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba, said she did not sleep well after hearing the apology because it brought back difficult memories. She went to day school and her parents went to residential schools.
“I am on my own healing journey from all of this," she said before the mass.
Eila Harper from St. Theresa Point First Nation in Manitoba said she is Catholic and attends mass every Sunday. She arrived at Lac Ste. Anne about five hours early and had a front-row seat to see Francis bless the lake.
“I was kind of emotional seeing him and thinking of our religion and everything back home,” she said.
“Since he is blessing the water, everybody will be healing."
Francis is to travel to Quebec City on Wednesday and end his visit in Iqaluit on Friday.
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 26, 2022.
With files from Daniela Germano in Edmonton and Kelly Geraldine Malone in Winnipeg
___
If you are a former residential school survivor 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.
Ontario Provincial Police say two people were killed after a car and a transport truck collided in the westbound lanes of Highway 417 near Limoges, Ont. on Tuesday afternoon.
High waters flooded neighborhoods around Houston on Saturday following heavy rains that have already resulted in crews rescuing hundreds of people from homes, rooftops and roads engulfed in murky water.
As Wegovy becomes available to Canadians starting Monday, a medical expert is cautioning patients wanting to use the drug to lose weight that no medication is a ''magic bullet,' and the new medication is meant particularly for people who meet certain criteria related to obesity and weight.
York Regional Police say they are continuing to search for a suspect in an auto theft investigation who was captured on video running over a police officer in Toronto last month.
Electric scooters (e-scooters) have been gaining popularity in the capital and this season comes with some changes and updates.
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
Montreal's Felix Auger-Aliassime has advanced to his first ATP Masters final, and he hasn't had to play all that much tennis to do it.
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.