CANADA
Toronto Sun
Prime Minister Stephen Harper brought up last week’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) report on Canada’s residential schools with Pope Francis during a visit to the Vatican Thursday, the PMO says.
But the news release issued Thursday morning doesn’t say whether Harper asked the Pope to apologize for the Catholic Church’s role in ripping more than 150,000 First Nations, Metis and Inuit children from their families and forcing them to attend the schools in what the TRC report says amounted to a “cultural genocide.”
In its report, the commission specifically calls on the Pope to issue an apology “for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in the spiritual, cultural, emotional, physical and sexual abuse…in Catholic-run residential schools.”
NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair echoed that call during question period Wednesday, asking if Harper would make that request during his scheduled meeting with the Pope Thursday.
Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt responded by saying he had written to the Vatican to inform the Pope about the TRC report.
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