TORONTO – The toxic, dysfunctional environment at York Catholic District School Board appears to have been resolved, at least for now. Tuesday, after months of push-back, the Chair of Board entertained a Motion to discuss allegations of discrimination and ethnic-based harassment against five trustees of Italian background as a breach of Conduct.
A group of delegates representing First Nations, Inuit and Métis head to Rome this weekend for an audience with the Pope. The delegation consists of about 30 Indigenous people including elders, residential school survivors and youth.
The delegation’s theme is centered around how Indigenous Peoples and the Catholic Church can move forward together toward healing and reconciliation. It is precisely the history of residential schools in Canada that has ignited the national conversation. →
The Inter-American Institute of Human Rights (IIHR) joined indigenous and human rights organizations so that the government of Canada could investigate the cases of abuse and death of hundreds of indigenous children who disappeared from institutions run by the Catholic Church. →
On Sunday, Pope Francis expressed shock and sorrow after “the discovery in Canada of the remains of 215 children, pupils of the Kamloops Indian Residential School in the province of British Columbia”.
During his weekly address to the crowd in Saint Peter’s Square Sunday afternoon, the Pope said he “joins the Canadian Bishops and the whole Catholic Church in Canada in expressing his closeness to the Canadian people who have been traumatized by the shocking news.” →
TORONTO – Justin Trudeau today offered at the House of Commons an official apology for the treatment of the Italian-Canadian community in the 1940s. The mea culpa recited by the Prime Minister for the decisions taken by the government of the time led by William Lyon Mackenzie King was not limited, as was to be expected, to the narrative of the suffering and injustice suffered by 600 men and four women of Italian origin interned in concentration camps scattered throughout the country, but touched all the strings of labour and tribulations suffered by all Italian Canadians since June 1940. →