Catholic Church petition: Here’s the impact you’ve had – and what’s next
Hello everyone. there’s encouraging news about what’s happened since the last update and a suggestion where our collective actions can be focused moving forward.
The good news: Each one of you – over 27,000 and growing each day – by signing, sharing and writing elected officials, is already impacting the Roman Catholic Church’s (RCC) response to the Residential Schools tragedy, which was our ultimate goal. At the time this petition was launched in June, the RCC was combative and dismissive of criticisms of how it had significantly failed in meeting its 2005 Residential School Agreement obligations. Three months later, the Church started acknowledging some of its failures and pledged to do better. So what shifted? A steady stream of new revelations about how the RCC had intentionally and aggressively dodged its obligations didn’t help. And, according to multiple news stories, this petition that you signed was part of what helped shift the RCC’s stance. For example, according to the CBC, “Last month, following calls to boycott Sunday mass and a petition to revoke the Catholic Church's tax exemptions, Canada's Catholic bishops issued a public, written apology to survivors. They also pledged to launch a new fundraising campaign with a goal of raising $30 million over five years.” This CBC podcast also names the petition as one of the influences on recent Catholic Church positive steps. So, we’re having an impact!
However, the Church has a long way to go, and our pressure needs to continue. Raising $30M in 5 years, if it ever happens, doesn’t even meet what the Church agreed to pay in 2005, and Indigenous leaders say it is far too little, especially given the vastly under-reported wealth of the Church in Canada (tens of billions of dollars). And, the highly questionable if not illegal use of charitable funds by the RCC – subsidized by each of you - requires scrutiny (for example, it spent more than 25% of funds it promised to survivors on its own “expenses’, which experts and Indigenous leaders described as outrageous).
While we continue to talk with lawyers about addressing this misuse of charitable funds, there is probably an even more promising opportunity to hold the RCC to account. Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, a former judge, legal scholar, and director of the University of British Columbia's Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre, along with Indigenous leaders, has been calling for years for a formal inquiry into the 2015 legal settlements with the Church. This inquiry would get at the full truth about what happened in the settlements. This is critical to Indigenous peoples in Canada – as Cree Elder AJ Felix states: “If we don’t know the truth, there can be no reconciliation”.
Just this week, newly named Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller stated his desire to get to the bottom of why Ottawa abandoned its appeal of a ruling releasing the Catholic Church from its settlement obligations to residential school survivors. "I am as puzzled as everyone," he told The Canadian Press. "I don't know what there is to do yet."
The next step is clear: Minister Marc Miller needs to launch a formal inquiry into the 2015 settlement. In the next update, we’ll provide information about how you can encourage him and other Ministers to do that.
In the meantime, thank you for continuing to support justice for Residential School survivors – we still have a long way to go.
Sincerely, David Thomson