Perspectives

Drum group singing with unidentified person
47 Articles
Did Pope Francis deliver an effective apology for the Catholic Church or to the residential school survivors?
If an apology is focused on the needs of the perpetrator for forgiveness and not on what the victims need for closure and healing, is it really an apology? One could argue that the pope, in focusing his apology on seeking forgiveness for the horrific “sins” of his “children” (priests, nuns and other christians), is
Will Pope Francis’ penitential voyage deliver what Indigenous people need?
On April 1, 2022, Pope Francis partially apologized to the delegation of First Nations, Métis and Inuit residential school survivors who travelled to Rome for meetings at the Vatican. The apology, however, simply said, “For the deplorable conduct of these members of the Catholic Church, I ask for God’s forgiveness and I want to say
Who’s doing what to advance reconciliation and who isn’t? Status Updates July 5, 2022
Read the one line descriptions below and feel the pulse of reconciliation – getting a little stronger now that the federal government has passed Bill C – 29 “The National Centre for Reconciliation Act“. Seven years after the release of the Truth and Reconciliation Final Report in June 2015, the federal government has finally tabled
The National Post dishonours the thousands of missing children in unmarked graves with their biased and distorted views
In the space of one week on the anniversary of the discovery of 200 unmarked graves at the Kamloops Indian Residential School on May 27, 2021 the National Post published two articles: May 26, 2022: “The year of the graves: How the world’s media got it wrong on residential school graves“. Terry Glavin May 30,
Who’s doing what to advance reconciliation? And who isn’t? Status updates May 13, 2022
Read the one line descriptions below and feel the pulse of reconciliation – currently weak and getting weaker. Read the 44 “Current Problems” across 13 “Themes” in multiple jurisdictions across Canada: Federal, BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Québec, Nfld and Lab., Nunavut, Ontario – including court cases that are national in scope and ask yourself:
How many of the TRC Calls to Action are complete? Don’t ask the federal government.
The federal government is directly or jointly accountable for 76 of the 94 Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action. The official government website “Delivering on Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action“ provides detailed explanations of actions they are delivering to advance each one. In addition to their perspectives, three other independent
What’s Happening with Reconciliation? Indigenous Watchdog Updates: Dec. 31, 2021
If you really want to see what is happening with reconciliation, take a glance through these updates as well as the previous ones. Every 6-8 weeks on average, these updates aggregate what is happening within that time period – good and bad, big and small, substantive and inconsequential – across the full spectrum of Indigenous