Catholic Church petition: We’re at 25,000 - How you can have even more impact!

Dear petition signer:

Thank you for your support! It is amazing to see how many Canadians feel passionately about ensuring the Catholic Church makes a positive contribution to Indigenous justice and healing: 25,000 of you have now signed the petition thanks to sharing with friends, family and colleagues (over 7000 of you)! Please keep this momentum building by sharing the petition: https://www.change.org/SuspendCatholicCharityStatus

And the outpouring of support for the petition also made it to the national news https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/petition-catholic-church-charitable-status

Indigenous people continue to sign this petition and appreciate your support; here are just a few examples of their comments:

• My grandfather, my mother and her siblings and my 1st cousins are survivors of Lejac Residential School!
• I’m signing for my ancestors because they were silenced
• Too many family and friends have been harmed by the Residential school system and the 60's Scoop, including my parents.
• My family members were residential school survivors. Time to make the church accountable for their actions along with their cohorts, the federal government of Canada.
• Because I am a child of intergenerational trauma due to the church and their nasty schools!
• My family was sent to fort Alexander school and intergenerational trauma remains.
• I'm signing because of my grandparents, survivors.

The federal election is a great opportunity for you to take the next step: it will only take several minutes to email the federal MPs who have responsibility for this issue, in addition to your federal MP (https://www.ourcommons.ca/members/en/search):

Prime Minister Trudeau pm@pm.gc.ca

Honorable Diane Lebouthillier, Minister of National Revenue Diane.Lebouthillier@parl.gc.ca (who is responsible for the CRA and charitable matters)

Honorable Marc Miller, Minister of Indigenous Services Marc.Miller@parl.gc.ca

You can reference:

- That many Indigenous leaders have singled out the Catholic Church for avoiding accountability and perpetuating trauma and are asking for justice

- How the federal government has not held the Catholic Church accountable given the highly questionable, unethical and potentially illegal use of charitable funds and under-reporting of their vast wealth

- That the federal government should appeal the botched 2015 ruling that let the Catholic Church off the hook for millions it promised Indigenous communities

- How inappropriate it is that all Canadian taxpayers are directly subsidizing the Catholic Church’s highly inappropriate behaviour

- Asking the federal government to launch a CRA investigation into possible violation of charitable rules by various Catholic Church charitable entities AND launch an inquiry into the botched 2015 ruling, something that noted legal experts have long asked for

We are continuing to pursue the above strategies and your ongoing support will help. Thank you again for your commitment to justice and healing for Indigenous Peoples in Canada!

Sincerely, David Thomson