'Just words': Pope's apology to residential school survivors draws mixed reactions from local leaders

Pope Francis was in Maskwacis, Alta., on Monday to apologize and seek forgiveness from residential school survivors in Canada.

It was a long-awaited apology that many people didn't live to hear.

"The church kneels before God and implores his forgiveness for the sins of her children," said Francis on Monday.

For residential school survivor Eddy Charlie, who attended the Kuper Island Residential School on Vancouver Island, the apology falls short of meaningful action.

"His apology is, I believe, just words," said Charlie, who is also the co-organizer of Victoria Orange Shirt Day.

Judith Sayers, president of the Nuu-Chah-Nulth Tribal Council, protested the visit from Port Alberni, B.C., saying the apology was just a small start.

"That’s what people are looking for today, is more than just words," she said. "If we have to fight that hard for an apology, is it really an apology?"

She said that the Pope's statements on Monday may be helpful for some, but for many others more work still needs to be done.

"If the Pope saying words can help people, I’m happy and I’m glad that he’s doing it," she said. "[But] you know for others, it really doesn’t matter."

MOVING ON

Norman Garry Sam, councillor with the Songhees First Nation, says he's heard similar mixed responses from people who lived through residential schools.

"I definitely hear my elders who don’t want anything to do with residential school anymore, who have put that pain and trauma behind them," he said.

Many Indigenous leaders are calling for action instead of words, including putting money towards healing resources, which the Pope acknowledged Monday.

"That raw feeling of pain is still going to be with us even 100, 200 years from now, but the Pope can help us find healing by going to actual communities and sitting with residential school survivors," said Charlie.

The residential school survivor says that the pope should be present for when more unmarked graves are uncovered.

"Then maybe he can feel that deeper sense of loss that real survivors of residential schools and their families are still feeling today," he said.

The Pope is not coming to B.C. during his time in Canada, so survivors here will have to continue to watch the Pope's visit from afar.