Pope’s pending visit to Métis territory about the survivors, not politics, says MNO president

Métis Nation of Ontario President Margaret Froh says the anticipated visit from Pope Francis to Canada—possibly this July—is about residential school survivors and not about politics.

“It really truly is all about the survivors. It’s about how can we move that dialogue with the (Catholic) church forward in a way that focuses on truth, on reconciliation, on healing and on justice. That’s what matters from where I’m sitting. It’s all about the survivors,” said Froh in an exclusive interview with Windspeaker.com.

She says the Pope’s visit should be to where he can meet the most survivors and experience Métis communities.

That means the Pope should be heading to Manitoba, says David Chartrand, president of the Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF).

“I want to assure our citizens that one of the important messages we will carry forward to His Holiness is the urgency of coming to the Heart of the Homeland of the Red River Métis to bless the final resting place of our great leader, Louis Riel,” said Chartrand in a statement last week. “His faith played a critical role in the evolution of our Nation. The Red River Métis, Riel’s people, will begin to find peace and justice through this important act of reconciliation.”

The MMF will be having a private audience with the Pope in the Vatican on April 21. That meeting comes about three weeks after delegations from the Métis National Council (MNC), the Assembly of First Nations and the Inuit each had private audiences with the Pope the last week of March.

The MMF split from the MNC last September.

Froh, whose MNO is one of the four Métis governments that now comprise the MNC, says that is not a call the MMF can make and that MNC President Cassidy Caron will be speaking with the Vatican about where the Pope should visit.

“I think that there’s certainly some challenges that we are having…with the Red River Métis sort of fishing in our ponds; this argument that there is only one democratically elected government and that it’s the MMF, obviously, is false. I think that’s a very political issue…(and) the visit from the Pope is not, and it should not be, about politics,” she said.

The connection between the Pope and Métis residential school survivors is particularly important in light of how Métis have been excluded from much of the work undertaken by the federal government to make amends for Canada’s role in the Indian residential school system, which operated from the 1880s to the last one closing in 1996, says Froh.

In its final report, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on the legacy of Indian residential schools included an entire volume titled “The Métis Experience.” The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) pertained to Indian residential schools that were federally funded and church-run. While many Métis attended these schools, they also attended church-run schools that were not federally funded and, as such, Métis were not fully included in the IRSSA.

“It is an ongoing shame that this damage has not been addressed and rectified,” wrote the TRC, which called on the churches and particularly the federal government to take the necessary steps to address and rectify the omission.

When the Pope is on Canadian soil, Froh says she is hopeful he will give a “full formal apology that includes a reference to the role the churches played.” 

On April 1, in a general audience with all three Indigenous delegations, Pope Francis said, in part, “For the deplorable conduct of those members of the Catholic Church, I ask for God’s forgiveness and I want to say to you with all my heart: I am very sorry. And I join my brothers, the Canadian bishops, in asking your pardon.”

That expression of sorrow was unexpected, admits Froh, who thinks the Pope was so moved by the stories of survivors that he needed to reach out.

“I think he spoke from his heart. I think he definitely acknowledged and spoke about his sorrow in the role that Catholics played within the system. What I didn’t hear him talk about was the role of the institution of the church,” she said.

Froh was not one of the eight MNC delegates that made the trip to Rome last week to meet with the Pope. She says with so few delegates, priority was given to Elders and residential school survivors as well as intergenerational survivors. The delegation was led by Caron, who Froh applauds for being a strong voice.

Froh was in contact with delegates via text and watched television coverage of the events. She says she was moved to tears when someone sent her a video of two youth who jigged for the Pope.

“A real celebration of our culture in front of the Pope was yet another opportunity to share with him just some of our culture as Indigenous people, much of which was taken away through those institutions. I think it’s a celebration of our resilience as Métis people and a sharing of our culture,” said Froh.

She credits the uncovering of unmarked graves at former residential schools last summer as also spurring the Pope to his personal apology.

She says those graves have also created an awareness with the general Canadian public, evidenced with the inability to find orange T-shirts when the first annual National Day of Truth and Reconciliation was marked last September.

“Suddenly we’re talking about children’s remains and that I think was the first time for many Canadians when this turned from a historic sort of facts to something that was very real and that they could relate to,” she said.

Froh recalls the words of TRC Chair Murray Sinclair who said success would be based on the extent to which the average Canadian can be engaged in understanding and feeling they want to do something.

Froh says it will be the work of Indigenous groups to keep Canadians involved in this road to reconciliation when more and more graves are uncovered and Canadians start to “turn off” in an effort to cope with “really challenging information.”

She adds that last week’s visit to the Vatican, the Pope’s apology and “very positive” coverage of the events by mainstream media “is another really important step in moving that work forward” and keeping Canadians focused on the issue.

Froh says records from the Catholic church of Métis students who attended both residential and day schools, as well as the repatriation of artifacts and cultural items are also important next steps in the process of reconciliation and healing.

Local Journalism Initiative Reporters are supported by a financial contribution made by the Government of Canada.