There is no longer quiet conversation about the trip. This delegation is already much different than the first, Fontaine says. Try refreshing your browser, or tap here to see other videos from our team. Society began to talk about Indigenous issues differently, Fontaine says. Canada also stopped its opposition to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada released an extensive report showing all Canadians and the world what happened in the church-run schools. More than another decade has passed, but Fontaine believes now is the right time with the right pope to deliver the important step to reconciliation.įontaine says so much has changed since he last visited the Vatican. “In my view, it set the stage for this important moment. Fontaine says the delegation requested an apology during the brief encounter and expected it would come.īut, in the end, Benedict only expressed his sorrow and “personal anguish.”įontaine kept his hope alive, even as it was accompanied by disappointment. The next year, Fontaine walked through the halls of the Vatican with four other Indigenous delegates to meet the head of the Church. They wanted to organize a private meeting between a handful of Indigenous leaders and Benedict, who was pope at that time. This day will help us to put that pain behind us,” Fontaine said in 2008 following the apology.Īs the government was apologizing publicly, there were discreet conversations behind closed doors among leaders of the Catholic Church in Canada, Fontaine says. “The memories of residential schools sometimes cut like merciless knives at our souls. Nearly two decades later, with the Indian Residential School Agreement, Fontaine would finally hear an apology delivered by then-prime minister Stephen Harper. “My Grade 3 class, if there were 20 boys in this particular class, every single one of the 20 would have experienced what I experienced,” Fontaine told the CBC as he called for an inquiry into the church-run schools.įontaine was grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and his testimony immediately shook the country. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.