Activists in Canada topple statue, demand apology from pope amid reckoning over death of Indigenous
Last edited Mon Jun 7, 2021, 07:05 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: Washington Post
World
Activists in Canada topple statue, demand apology from pope amid reckoning over death of Indigenous children at residential schools
A toppled and defaced statue of Egerton Ryerson, considered an architect of Canada's residential Indigenous school system, following a protest at Ryerson University in Toronto on June 6. (Chris Helgren/Reuters)
By Miriam Berger and Amanda Coletta
June 7, 2021 at 12:55 p.m. EDT
Protesters on Sunday toppled a statute of Egerton Ryerson — one of the key figures behind Canada’s residential school system, which separated some 150,000 Indigenous children from their homes — amid growing anger over the Catholic Church’s refusal to issue an apology for its role in the abuse students faced.
The rally at Ryerson University in Toronto was organized in response to news last month that the remains of 215 Indigenous children had been found in the yard of a former residential school run by the Catholic Church in British Columbia.
A child's red dress hangs on a stake near the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in Kamloops, British Columbia, on June 6. (Jennifer Gauthier/Reuters)
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“The culprits sort of get off scot-free,” Kamloops survivor Saa Hiil Thut, 72, told Reuters, on Sunday after {Pope} Francis’s remarks.
He continued, “The pope won’t say, ‘You know what? I heard there was (thousands of) cases of physical and sexual abuse in those residential schools run by our church.’ He won’t say that. He won’t say ‘there’s 215 children in an unmarked grave in Kamloops and probably every residential school in Canada.’”
By Miriam Berger
Miriam Berger is a staff writer reporting on foreign news for The Washington Post from Washington, D.C. Before joining The Post in 2019 she was based in Jerusalem and Cairo and freelance reported around the Middle East, as well as parts of Africa and Central Asia. Twitter https://twitter.com/MiriamABerger
By Amanda Coletta
Amanda Coletta is a reporter based in Toronto who covers Canada for The Washington Post. She previously worked in London, first at the Economist and then the Wall Street Journal. Twitter https://twitter.com/a_coletta
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/06/07/canada-residential-schools-pope-francis-egerton-ryerson/
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