Apology from Pope draws mixed reaction in Saskatchewan

By Nigel Maxwell

Hours after an apology from Pope Francis to former residential school students and a promise to come to Canada to deliver a similar message, his words are still sinking in for at least two concerned Saskatchewan residents.

Kevin Seesequasis, a community development officer at Beardy’s and Okemasis’ Cree Nation, is part of a Canadian cultural delegation in Rome, helping lift the spirits of the Indigenous leaders attending meetings and provide them with some semblance of home.

While he was not there in person for the apology, Seesequasis was able to watch it from outside the Vatican. He told paNOW he believes the Pope was sincere and has every intention of coming to Canada and delivering an apology.

“He said specifically on native land and I think he’s referencing the national anthem of Canada but more importantly the symbolism and importance of delivering that apology to our people and our communities,” he said, adding delegates he spoke to leaving the Vatican also relayed to him similar feelings that the Pope’s words were genuine.

The delegation, comprised of people from various geographical areas of Canada, is part of the larger Indigenous tourism association of Canada and was asked by the Assembly of First Nations to come to Rome. Seesequasis said the response from both the local community and local media has been great.

“There’s a lot of curiosity and a lot of people still don’t really have a thorough understanding or even a grasp of Indigenous culture in Canada so it’s been uplifting to be able to share those stories of what culture is like in Canada,” he said.

Last year, Patricia Ballantyne walked from a former residential school site in Prince Albert to the steps of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa as a way to raise awareness for former residential school survivors. She told paNOW the Pope’s apology does not change anything.

“There is really nothing the church can do or say to bring back the First Nations culture or to bring back the loss that I felt,” she said.

Ballantyne’s walk last summer was inspired in part by a tragic story from B.C., where the bodies of 215 children were found in unmarked graves. Ballantyne herself spent nearly 10 years at a residential school and to this day remains on a path of healing.

“Their apologies won’t bring my family back together; they won’t bring (back) my religion, my language or anything we lost because of the residential schools,” she said.

Ballantyne added it’s not the responsibility of the church to apologize to her or to the children she went to residential school with, explaining that between 1970 and 1988, it was not the church that ran the schools but rather the tribal councils.

“I do not blame the churches for that because (the tribal councils) had it in their hands and could have done a better job at securing and taking care of their own people and their own children,” she said.