indianz.com Dynamic Homes
Advertise on Indianz.Com
Home Whats New on Indianz.Com? News Forums
Home > News > Headlines
Print   Subscribe
Column: Pope Benedict's 'apology' comes too late
Friday, May 1, 2009
Filed Under: First Nations | Opinion

"When Karen Chaboyer saw the news from the Vatican yesterday of Pope Benedict XVI expressing his "sorrow" over the long-term suffering and abuse of thousands of aboriginal Canadians in the residential schools run by the Roman Catholic Church, her first emotion was one of anger.

It was, in fact, her first and only emotion.

And it remains a constant.

"Why did the victim have to go to the offender to get his apology?" she asks. "Why did Phil Fontaine (Grand Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, and himself a residential school survivor) have to cross an ocean?

"Why did the Pope not come to us? We're here, not there. And here is where it happened."

For Chaboyer, "here" was St. Margaret's residential school in the Northern Ontario outpost of Fort Frances, all within view of Couchiching First Nations, where she and her nine brothers and two sisters were uprooted from their off-reserve home, a log cabin on Rice Bay, and tossed into an environment that had only one purpose.

And that, as history now willingly but belatedly accepts, was to kill the Indian in the child."

Get the Story:
Mark Bonokoski: Pope's apology too late (The Toronto Sun 4/30)

Related Stories:
Pope Benedict discusses Native residential schools (4/30)
Pope Benedict to discuss residential schools (4/29)



Copyright © Indianz.Com
More headlines...
Local Links:
In The Hoop | Indian Gaming | The Federal Register
Casino Stalker | Federal Recognition Database
Job Links:
Job Ad: NCAI Policy Research Center Program Associate (2/9)
Job Ad: Attorney for Indian Law Resource Center (2/9)
Latest News:
SCIA 'negligent' for South Dakota tribes hit by storms (2/9)
Johnny Flynn: 'Experts' and sweat lodge death case (2/9)
Opinion: Questions remain about Cobell settlement (2/9)
Opinion: Deck stacked against tribes over sacred site (2/9)
Editorial: Gila River Tribe takes a look at the highway (2/9)
Editorial: 'Joe Raider' mascot set for chopping block (2/9)
Prosecutors seek gag order for 'sweat lodge' deaths (2/9)
Navajo Nation moves forward with plans for casino (2/9)
Appeals filed on Mohawk off-reservation casino vote (2/9)
Tim Giago: Cherokee Nation fights termination effort (2/8)
NIEA vice president delivers education speech in DC (2/8)
USET, NIEA on schedule despite big snowstorm in DC (2/8)
Mark Trahant: Growing the IHS budget in tough times (2/8)
Opinion: Cobell case settled for pennies on the dollar (2/8)
Opinion: Quileute Nation not getting rich off 'Twilight' (2/8)
Editorial: Sheriff wrong about Coeur d'Alene policing (2/8)
Obama proposes cut in NAGPRA tribal grant program (2/8)
Editorial: Lawmaker takes on Creek Nation for lawsuit (2/8)
Little Traverse Bay Bands ends partnership with tribe (2/8)
Northwestern Band commemorates 1863 massacre (2/8)
Torres Martinez Tribe behind on $1.54M fine for TANF (2/8)
more headlines...
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
Indianz.Com Jobs! Find Employment

Home | Abramoff | Arts & Entertainment | Business | Canada | Cobell | Education | Environment | Forum | Health | Humor | Indian Gaming | Jobs | Law | National | News | Opinion | Politics | Recognition | Red Lake | Sports | Trust

Suggest a Site

Indianz.Com Terms of Service | Indianz.Com Privacy Policy
About Indianz.Com | Contribute to Indianz.Com | Advertise on Indianz.Com | Write to Indianz.Com

Indianz.Com is a product of Noble Savage Media, LLC and Ho-Chunk, Inc.