Time has come’ for Pope to apologize over residential schools, says Phil Fontaine – CBC
Former national chief who revealed abuse he suffered is part of delegation to Vatican
When Phil Fontaine spoke decades ago about the sexual and physical abuse he suffered at Manitoba residential schools, he risked shame and shocked Canadians.
Fontaine, an Ojibway and former chief of the Sagkeeng First Nation, was one of the first Indigenous leaders to speak to the public about the physical and psychological abuse at Canada’s residential schools, during a ground-breaking 1990 interview with CBC’s Barbara Frum.
Now, 32 years later, the former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations is part of a 30-member delegation that will be at the Vatican starting on Monday to talk about the Roman Catholic Church’s role in the horrors that played out in Canadian residential schools.
