FSIN calling on the Pope and Catholic church to apologize and release records

The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations is calling on Pope Francis and the Catholic church to apologize for the remains found of 215 Indigenous students discovered in a Kamloops residential school.

This comes after the Pope voiced sorrow over the deaths but did not apologize.

“This was genocide, and it should be acknowledged as such by the perpetrators, the Church, the Government, and the RCMP. Survivors and their families deserve an apology for the wrongs committed against them during decades of abuse at federally and church-run residential schools” said FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron in the media release. “These institutions must also preserve and release all residential school records, so that true reconciliation and healing can begin and the United Nations can conduct an investigation. Litigation against the release of these records contradicts Canada’s claim that their most important relationship is with the First Peoples of these lands. Anything short of this is continued injustice against First Nations people.”

The FSIN is also encouraging survivors of the schools and their families to request those involved with residential schools, including the government, to release all records of residential schools so “healing can happen for all.” They also wish the United Nations can investigate “the genocide and systemic racism made against all First Nations People in Canada.”