MONTREAL – Canada’s Catholic bishops yesterday pledged C$30 million (RM99.4 million) to support initiatives for survivors of residential schools for indigenous children that the Church once ran, after issuing a formal apology last week.
The funds will be released over five years “to address the suffering experienced in Canada’s residential schools”, said the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) in a statement.
The initiative “will support meaningful projects across Canada, and make a significant difference in addressing the historical and ongoing trauma caused by the residential school system”, said Bishop Raymond Poisson, president of CCCB.
On Friday, the bishops expressed their “profound remorse” and offered “unequivocal” apologies to indigenous peoples after the discovery in recent months of more than 1,000 graves near former boarding schools run by the Catholic Church.
In Canada, which has been shaken by the revelations, many voices were raised last summer to demand an apology from the Church – and even from the pope himself.
The anonymous graves were uncovered near former Catholic residential schools, shedding light on a dark chapter in the country’s history and its policy of the forced assimilation of First Nations.
In total, some 150,000 Indian, Metis and Inuit children were enrolled from the late 1800s to the 1990s in 139 residential schools across Canada, spending months or years isolated from their families. – AFP, September 28, 2021
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