When this editorial hits newsstands, it will have been at least five days since the Canadian Press (CP) broke news that the $25 million in reparations Canada was seeking from the Catholic Church for its role in the residential school system was effectively written off in the middle of an election.
For those unaware, a signed copy of a 2015 legal agreement obtained by CP through an access to information request revealed that during the 2015 federal election, the Stephen Harper government agreed to “forever discharge the Catholic entities entities from their promise to raise $25 million for residential school survivors” — and also pay their legal fees.
This agreement, which CP concluded was signed on or by Oct. 30, 2015, appears to have been approved by the outgoing Conservatives either right before they lost the vote or just as they were transitioning to the current Liberal government. So no matter how many children are found buried, no matter how horrified or angry voters get or how determined Canada is to address this terrible wrong, the Catholic church’s responsibility in this whole mess has been null and void for nearly seven years.
The deal is particularly strange because the Harper government was also notable for offering a formal apology for residential schools in 2008 and signed off on the $1.9 billion Indian Residential Schools Agreement in 2006 — the largest class action lawsuit in Canadian history — so this change of heart doesn’t add up.
Whether the pope was aware of all this is anyone’s guess, but surely someone in the Canadian Catholic Diocese knew this agreement was in place as they brought his holiness around the country to apologize.
Many people spent a lot of money to see the pope and many governments hastily budgeted for paving roads, building structures and bringing in dignitaries and other costs in hosting him. In hindsight, “begging for forgiveness” seems downright greedy considering the Catholic Church is getting out of this $25 million ahead — and still largely doesn’t pay taxes.
There will be many more children found and the consequences of the residential school system will affect survivors and their descendants for at least the next century — but there will be no justice, all thanks to an agreement signed behind closed doors during a federal election by the losing party, and it was hidden away until now.
This agreement between the Harper government and the Catholic Church affects people here in Inuvik and every community in Canada — not just the 80,000 remaining survivors of this attempted genocide, but their children, grandchildren and beyond. Healing these wounds is going to take millions upon millions of dollars in reparations, counselling, filling infrastructure gaps and providing social supports — yet the major responsible party is not going to pay a cent.
We as journalists owe it to Canadians to get to the bottom of this. We need to find out what happened, who is responsible and make sure history holds them to account.