Tom Roberts is still recovering from his time at Prince Albert’s Indian Residential School, run for decades by the Church of England.
“Your opinion didn’t matter. Your ideas didn’t matter. There were three things we were taught there: Do what you are told, what to do, and how to do it. And don’t ask questions or you’re going to get hit or worse, “Roberts said.
“For many years I could not say ‘I love you’ to my children. Why? I didn’t know what it was.
Roberts heard a rumor a few weeks ago that the head of the Anglican Church was coming to Canada, possibly even Saskatchewan. A few days ago, the Anglican authorities confirmed that the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby will come to the nation of James Smith Cree, east of Prince Albert, Sasuke, this weekend.
Roberts, a member of the Lac la Ronge Indian Band, said he planned to make the four-hour trip, but was disappointed the survivors were left to speculate on the details of the visit until the last second.
“Suddenly he says, ‘I’m coming.’ They set their own agenda, “Roberts said.
No one from the Anglican Church of Canada was available for an interview on Thursday, but Welby issued a written statement Wednesday before the visit, which also includes a stop in Toronto on Monday.
“Therefore, an important goal of this visit is to repent and redeem where our relationships and actions have done more harm than good – and to honor the sovereignty of local communities,” Welby wrote.
Roberts is happy that Welby is “showing some interest,” but said the apology was pointless without action.
“Reconciliation will never begin until someone apologizes and then does something about it,” he said.
Saskatoon Cree’s lawyer and former chief adviser to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Donald Worm, agrees.
“What exactly is an excuse? Just public relations? Are you feeling well?” Said Worm. “Deal with some of the historical influences in which they have been involved, such as the Church of England. That would actually make sense.”
Survivor Tom Roberts says he will travel to the James Smith Cree nation in Saskatchewan to meet with Canterbury Archbishop Justin Welby this weekend, but hopes Welby will bring more than words about the visit. (CBC)
The Church of England is one of the four Christian denominations that have run housing schools in Canada for more than a century. The Roman Catholic Church ran most of the schools, but 36 were Anglican.
Senior Canadian Anglican officials apologized in 1993 and again in 2019 for the Church’s role in schools. The Roman Catholic bishops of Canada apologized collectively for the first time last fall.
Welby’s visit to Canada comes just weeks after Pope Francis apologized in Rome for the behavior of some members of the Roman Catholic Church in the system. Francis will visit Canada this summer.
In 2006, the federal government, churches and survivors signed the Survivor Agreement in Indian Residential Schools. This allowed the church to settle billions of dollars in debt from lawsuits for survivors.
Each Christian church agreed to submit all relevant documents and pay compensation.
Worm and another former TRC lawyer, Thomas McMahon, said the Catholic Church was the most judicial and obstructionist. But the Anglican Church has not yet fully revealed what it knows, they say.
“I don’t think any of them get a free pass. Less racism is still racism and less hatred is still hatred. We want them to actually do their job,” Worm said.
McMahon said the revelation of the Catholic Church was “absolutely cruel”, but the Anglican Church “had to do more, had to do more”.
Donald Worm, a lawyer in Saskatoon and a former leading adviser to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, said the Anglican Church costs more than $ 13 billion and could easily fund much-needed healing programs for resident school survivors. (Ken Gigliotti // Winnipeg Free Press / The Canadian Press)
As for compensation, the Anglican Church has agreed to pay $ 15.7 million. The Anglican, United, and Presbyterian Churches complied and paid the full amounts they agreed to. The Catholic Church did not.
When the Catholic Church later negotiated a side deal and ultimately a controversial redemption, this changed the compensation formula. The Anglican Church has recovered $ 2.8 million, according to the website of the Anglican Church in Canada. Anglican officials said all $ 2.8 million had been invested in indigenous service programs.
The amounts of compensation and reimbursement may have been legal, but they were not right, said Roberts, Worm and McMahon.
In recent months, surviving Catholics have forced the Vatican to fund much-needed treatment programs for survivors and their descendants. They note that the Vatican has billions of assets.
Roberts, Worm and McMahon say the Anglican Church is no different.
Worm said his study with the TRC shows that the total assets of the Global Church of England or the Church of England are at least $ 13 billion CDN. That includes 105,000 acres of real estate in the UK alone, much of it in London’s most expensive neighborhoods.
Others point out that the Archbishop of Canterbury may be the religious leader of the Anglican Church, but the man at the top, the supreme governor of the Anglican Church, is the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The Church of England was founded in 1534 by Henry VIII after the Roman Catholic pope of the day refused to grant Henry the annulment of his marriage to the first of his six wives.
The British monarchy has assets of at least $ 28 billion, including $ 500 million in personal assets for Queen Elizabeth II, according to Forbes magazine. It also generates more than $ 1 billion in annual revenue.
“Where is the monarchy in all this?” McMahon said. “We rightly condemn John MacDonald, Egerton Ryerson and others for their role in schools, but it was all done in the name of the monarchy. They all swore allegiance to it.”
Tom Roberts said he wasn’t sure how he would feel when he saw Welby this weekend. But he is sure he will draw strength from the other survivors.
“We were conditioned to walk with our heads bowed, not to show any emotions. We became stone people,” Roberts said.
“Now I hope we can all laugh and cry together.”
Add Comment