Immediately after news that more than 200 bodies had been found on the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School is not the time to defend less important details pertaining to the discovery. Suffice to say, the historical reality of the Catholic Church’s involvement in the Residential School system is bad and the Church needs to accept that it needs to listen and keep apologizing.
It’s also important to keep in mind that all the apologies in the world don’t amount to a single concrete action, and the Catholic Church has its work cut out for it in taking steps to bridge the gulf between Church and First Nations.
That gulf, once enormous, has been steadily narrowing thanks to efforts to build trust and take action. Suggestions in news reports, commentaries, and on social media that the Church has done nothing to accept responsibility or make amends for what happened are inaccurate. I’ll leave it to another column to outline the legacy of this archdiocese in rebuilding relationships with the Indigenous community. The present moments are for listening and for apologizing.
What should be mentioned at this time, however, is that it’s incorrect to say the Church has not accepted any responsibility for its role in the Residential School system established by the federal government.
Whether the Church’s response has been adequate is subject for debate, but not the fact that apologies have been offered.
It’s important that people who are at risk of being scandalized by the Church response know that Catholic leaders have confessed the sins of the past and asked forgiveness for them.
One final matter, which I’m going to risk not following my own advice about because it involves me and could disturb others who aren’t aware of the background behind it.
There’s a B.C. newspaper headline currently making the rounds that I’m getting tagged on. It reads: “Claims of mass grave at Tk’emlups go back years.”
Beneath the headline, the newspaper goes on to say that in 2008 it “reported on allegations that the remains of children were buried in the land around the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. At that time, the Catholic Church stated it had no knowledge of such claims.”
I’ve received outraged comments, and people are saying this is not the Church they thought they were a part of. If I hadn’t stopped believing most media narratives long ago, I’d also be outraged. The reality however is very different.
In 2008, I was spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Vancouver. The newspaper quoted me responding to incredible allegations from a former United Church minister who said churches, police, and aboriginal organizations had conspired to cover up the deliberate murders of thousands of children and babies at former Residential Schools.
I told the reporter the archdiocese had no knowledge of such things happening. Neither did other churches or First Nations themselves. I said we knew terrible harm occurred at Residential Schools. It was well known that large numbers of children had died at the schools, mostly but not always from illness. We recognized that families hadn’t been adequately informed, that remains had not been returned, that gravesites hadn’t been properly marked and cared for, and that funding had been inadequate.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was just getting under way back then, and those conspiracy theories were drawing more media coverage than the TRC’s important work with survivors and the real harm they suffered, despite the fact police had investigated the claims and called them unfounded. First Nations wanted nothing to do with the individual making the accusations.
Unfortunately that story is now being reframed in light of the past week’s developments to suggest we were aware of “mass graves” and covered them up. It says we denied that the land around the school “contained the remains of children who once walked the building’s halls.”
That’s a misrepresentation of the original story, which was about allegations of mass murder and conspiracy, and it’s typical of deceit that’s become too common in journalism today.
The fact the media continue using the term “mass grave” to describe the Kamloops discovery is just more evidence. The band did not report finding a mass grave. What it did discover may conceivably be even worse, indicating neglect, apathy, abuse – inhumanity at its worst. But “mass graves” is a media misstatement that more than one news outlet has had to correct.
As we navigate the painful and important Truth and Reconciliation story, it’s essential for us to keep in mind that truth is one of the guiding principles of the process. And truth is incumbent on everyone.
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