MEDIA RELEASE - The Pope’s visit must be more than a symbolic gesture

“Indigenous peoples have long called on the Catholic Church to show leadership in the Truth and Reconciliation process. The news that Pope Francis will visit Canada is met with a myriad of emotions by the First Nations, Inuit and Métis. The hurch’s role in the genocide perpetrated against Indigenous peoples still affects families and communities today.
While Indigenous peoples deserve an unequivocal apology from the Catholic Church, immediate action is urgently needed to ensure healing from crimes committed against Inuit, First Nations and Metis, at the hands of the churches.

May 13th, 2022

The Pope’s visit must be more than a symbolic gesture

NDP critic for Indigenous Services, Lori Idlout, made the following statement:

“Indigenous peoples have long called on the Catholic Church to show leadership in the Truth and Reconciliation process. The news that Pope Francis will visit Canada is met with a myriad of emotions by the First Nations, Inuit and Métis. The hurch’s role in the genocide perpetrated against Indigenous peoples still affects families and communities today.

While Indigenous peoples deserve an unequivocal apology from the Catholic Church, immediate action is urgently needed to ensure healing from crimes committed against Inuit, First Nations and Metis, at the hands of the churches.

The Catholic Church and the government worked together in these harms. As such, they must work together to finally ensure that the harm done to Indigenous peoples is being addressed. This must include cooperating with ongoing investigations and making all documents requested by survivors, police and local governments available. The Liberal government knows what they need to do for Indigenous peoples seeking answers. There can be no more false promises or delays. Indigenous peoples deserve truth, justice and a government that has the courage to act.

The Pope’s visit must not be symbolic. He must listen to the calls of Elders in Nunavut to not just stop in Iqaluit, but actually go visit former Residential Schools and speak directly with survivors to truly understand the crimes and harms that the Catholic Church inflicted on generations of Inuit, Métis and First Nations peoples.

New Democrats will never stop fighting for justice for Indigenous peoples. We’ll continue to push this government to work with the Catholic church to deliver what is needed so Indigenous peoples, their families and communities can heal.”

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Media Statement: In Response to the Hong Kong Government’s Issuance of a Wanted List for Overseas Pro-Democracy Activists

I call on the Canadian government to take urgent and decisive action to:

1. Strongly condemn the Hong Kong government’s NSL and the targeting of overseas activists, including Canadian citizens and residents, and call for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners in Hong Kong.

2. Impose targeted sanctions on Hong Kong and Chinese officials responsible for human rights violations and the erosion of Hong Kong’s freedoms.

3. Stop according any special rights or diplomatic status to the Hong Kong Economic and Trade offices in Canada.

4. Expedite the processing of PR application for Hong Kongers fleeing political persecution and to automatically renew their work and study permit in the meantime.

Global NEWS: UBC criticized for renting room to Hong Kong government for recruitment exam

“UBC, of course, can rent their space to anybody. However, from my perspective, I think that you should be looking at some ethical standards that should apply,” she said.

“In the very minimum, one would think that any organization, any institution that’s going to rent out a space to a government that is a regular, persistent, violent human rights violators, that they would apply some standards to it.”

Kwan suggested the university should have warned those taking the exam about the concerns regarding the NSL.

Kwan called UBC’s response “completely inadequate.”

“It’s just basically saying, well, it doesn’t matter. We’re blind to all of these issues,” she said.

“As a global institution, which is what UBC is, you would think that they would have a little bit more thought than to say, ‘We will just follow the regulations of basic rental requirements.’ That’s not good enough.”

MEDIA RELEASE - The Pope’s visit must be more than a symbolic gesture

Latest posts

Media Statement: In Response to the Hong Kong Government’s Issuance of a Wanted List for Overseas Pro-Democracy Activists

Global NEWS: UBC criticized for renting room to Hong Kong government for recruitment exam

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