Residential School

July 14, 2017

Residential school survivor awarded Vanier scholarship to further PhD research

Terrance Pelletier, the former chief of the Cowessess First Nation, has been awarded a three-year, $150,000 Vanier scholarship by the University of Saskatchewan to further his PhD research into the relationship between residential schools, the government and the leadership in the Indigenous community.

Terrance Pelletier has lived through the tragedy of residential schools and all its social and political fallout.

Published in Canada

March 31, 2017

‘Spiritual abuse’ from residential schools had deep roots for First Nations

In this 1940 photo, a group of female students and a nun pose in a classroom at Cross Lake Indian Residential School in Manitoba. Blair Stonechild, a professor of indigenous studies at First Nations University of Canada, says the residential school periods in Canada was “spiritual abuse” and has deep roots.

Blair Stonechild knows first-hand the devastating effects residential schools had on First Nations spirituality.

Published in Canada

April 27, 2016

Church did not ‘weasel’ out of residential school settlement

Archbishop Gerard Pettipas takes issue with a Globe and Mail report that the Catholic Church “weaselled” out of its obligations on Indian residential schools.

A $21-million shortfall on a $25-million fundraising campaign was a fiasco, but it wasn’t an attempt to weasel out of the legal or moral obligations Catholics have in the wake of the residential schools tragedy, Grouard-McLennan Archibishop Gerard Pettipas told The Catholic Register.

Published in Canada