Cowessess First Nation Chief hopeful Pope will visit residential school sites

Cowessess First Nation Chief Cadmus Delorme is hopeful that Pope Francis will visit the sites of former Canadian residential schools in the near future, following his meetings with multiple Indigenous delegations at the Vatican.

“The Pope must come to Canada to apologize, to survivors, to families of survivors and to victim’s families,” Delorme said during an interview with CTV Morning Live.

Indigenous delegations from First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities are in Rome this week to discuss reconciliation with Pope Francis at the Vatican.

“Apologies must come, but not just apologies, actions and investment as well to get Indigenous peoples to that area we all know they can be and an apology is part of that,” Delorme said.

Delorme said with 130 former residential school sites around Canada, he hopes where the Pope visits is impactful and that residential school survivors are able to feel compassion that change is coming.

“Our survivors are watching,” Delorme said. “Every great thing we do for truth and reconciliation in this country, just lifts their hearts a little bit, so hopefully where he goes is the most impactful place.”

Pope Francis has accepted an invitation to come to Canada, but a date has yet to be determined.

First Nations delegates will be meeting with the Pope again on Thursday.

Recently there have been discoveries of evidence of thousands of unmarked graves at the sites of former residential schools around Canada, including 751 on Cowessess First Nation, where the Marieval Residential School operated from 1899 until 1997.

“We have a moment in our history right now to just readjust our compass a little bit and apologies must come,” Delorme said.

Cowessess First Nation is currently thriving with economic activity including agriculture and trucking, which Delorme said is an important part of moving forward and part of the truth and reconciliation process.

“One of the healing journeys for Indigenous peoples is economic participation, it’s number 92 on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Call to Action," Delorme said.

Canadian residential schools were mostly run by the Roman Catholic Church, where attendance was mandatory from 1894 to 1947. In 1969, the system was taken over by the Department of Indian Affairs, which effectively ended the church’s’ involvement.

At that time, the government was met with resistance from the Catholic Church, which believed that segregated education would be best for Indigenous children.

With files from CTVNews.ca and CTV Morning Live Regina’s Darrell Romuld.