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Saturday, February 04, 2012
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28 April, 2009
Squamish Nation territory, west coast of Canada
To the people of Italy, from a gathering of clan elders of aboriginal nations in Canada
Dear friends,
We greet you warmly and ask that you receive this message and take it to heart, for it is spoken on behalf of tens of thousands of our relatives, little children, who died and were killed in boarding schools run by the Roman Catholic church across Canada.
Between 1890 and 1996, over 50,000 aboriginal children died in the Indian residential schools across Canada mostly because of the Roman Catholic church, which established and ran over two-thirds of these "schools". Many of these children died from beatings, tortures, being deliberately exposed to deadly diseases and not helped, and other deliberate homicidal actions.
Not one person has ever been brought to trial for the death of any of these children, and the Catholic church refuses to say where these children or buried or how they died.
This week, the Pope, Joseph Ratzinger, will be issuing a so-called "apology" for the harm caused in these Indian residential schools. We do not accept his apology, for genocide and mass murder cannot be apologized for, or made better with words.
Instead, we ask the Pope to take full responsibility for the murderous acts of his church over centuries towards our peoples.
We demand that the Pope do the following, to prove that he is genuinely regretful for the deeds of his church in the Canadian Indian residential schools:
1. Identify where the children are buried who died in these Catholic schools, and order that their remains be returned home to their families for a proper burial;
2. Identify and surrender the persons responsible for their deaths;
3. Fully disclose all evidence related to their deaths, and to crimes in the residential schools, by opening the Vatican archives and all other church records for public scrutiny;
4. Revoke the papal bulls known as Romanus Pontifex (1455) and Inter Catera (1493), and all other laws which gave religious and legal sanction to the conquest and destruction of non-Christian aboriginal peoples in the New World;
5. Revoke the Vatican policy, crafted in part by the present Pope, which requires that Bishops and priests suppress evidence of the abuse of children within their churches and silence the victims;
6. Come in person to Canada, to the poorest neighbourhoods where Indian residential school survivors live, and ask these people for their forgiveness for the genocidal actions and policies of his church, and pledge publicly that these actions and policies will never be repeated, and finally,
7. Present himself in person before an International War Crimes Tribunal into Genocide in Canada, and answer charges that he and his church are responsible and liable for the destruction and deaths of untold millions of aboriginal people.
We believe that these demands on the Pope, Joseph Ratzinger, are fair and just, and are those to be expected if justice is to be served and God honored.
In making these demands, we publicly disassociate ourselves from the so-called aboriginal leader from Canada, "Chief" Phil Fontaine, who will appear with the Pope as part of this "apology". Mr. Fontaine does not represent aboriginal people in Canada, but serves the Canadian government. He never consulted our elders or any aboriginal people before going to Rome.
We ask that the Italian people pressure the Pope and the Catholic church to agree to these demands. We also ask that you learn more about the Canadian genocide at the website below, and to contact our organization, The Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared, whose representatives will be visiting your country in September and October.
In the spirit of truth and brotherhood, we are
Twelve Elders in Council representing the Cree, Squamish, Haida, Metis and Anishinabe Aboriginal Nations
Elder Jeremiah Jourdain
Chief Louis Daniels (Whispers Wind)
Council spokespeople
contact: Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared
c/o Eagle Strong Voice (Kevin Annett)
260 Kennedy St.
Nanaimo, B.C. Canada V9R 2H8
ph: 250-753-3345
email: hiddenfromhistory@yahoo.ca
website: www.hiddenfromhistory.org
28 April, 2009
Squamish Nation territory, west coast of Canada
To the people of Italy, from a gathering of clan elders of aboriginal nations in Canada
Dear friends,
We greet you warmly and ask that you receive this message and take it to heart, for it is spoken on behalf of tens of thousands of our relatives, little children, who died and were killed in boarding schools run by the Roman Catholic church across Canada.
Between 1890 and 1996, over 50,000 aboriginal children died in the Indian residential schools across Canada mostly because of the Roman Catholic church, which established and ran over two-thirds of these "schools". Many of these children died from beatings, tortures, being deliberately exposed to deadly diseases and not helped, and other deliberate homicidal actions.
Not one person has ever been brought to trial for the death of any of these children, and the Catholic church refuses to say where these children or buried or how they died.
This week, the Pope, Joseph Ratzinger, will be issuing a so-called "apology" for the harm caused in these Indian residential schools. We do not accept his apology, for genocide and mass murder cannot be apologized for, or made better with words.
Instead, we ask the Pope to take full responsibility for the murderous acts of his church over centuries towards our peoples.
We demand that the Pope do the following, to prove that he is genuinely regretful for the deeds of his church in the Canadian Indian residential schools:
1. Identify where the children are buried who died in these Catholic schools, and order that their remains be returned home to their families for a proper burial;
2. Identify and surrender the persons responsible for their deaths;
3. Fully disclose all evidence related to their deaths, and to crimes in the residential schools, by opening the Vatican archives and all other church records for public scrutiny;
4. Revoke the papal bulls known as Romanus Pontifex (1455) and Inter Catera (1493), and all other laws which gave religious and legal sanction to the conquest and destruction of non-Christian aboriginal peoples in the New World;
5. Revoke the Vatican policy, crafted in part by the present Pope, which requires that Bishops and priests suppress evidence of the abuse of children within their churches and silence the victims;
6. Come in person to Canada, to the poorest neighbourhoods where Indian residential school survivors live, and ask these people for their forgiveness for the genocidal actions and policies of his church, and pledge publicly that these actions and policies will never be repeated, and finally,
7. Present himself in person before an International War Crimes Tribunal into Genocide in Canada, and answer charges that he and his church are responsible and liable for the destruction and deaths of untold millions of aboriginal people.
We believe that these demands on the Pope, Joseph Ratzinger, are fair and just, and are those to be expected if justice is to be served and God honored.
In making these demands, we publicly disassociate ourselves from the so-called aboriginal leader from Canada, "Chief" Phil Fontaine, who will appear with the Pope as part of this "apology". Mr. Fontaine does not represent aboriginal people in Canada, but serves the Canadian government. He never consulted our elders or any aboriginal people before going to Rome.
We ask that the Italian people pressure the Pope and the Catholic church to agree to these demands. We also ask that you learn more about the Canadian genocide at the website below, and to contact our organization, The Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared, whose representatives will be visiting your country in September and October.
In the spirit of truth and brotherhood, we are
Twelve Elders in Council representing the Cree, Squamish, Haida, Metis and Anishinabe Aboriginal Nations
Elder Jeremiah Jourdain
Chief Louis Daniels (Whispers Wind)
Council spokespeople
contact: Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared
c/o Eagle Strong Voice (Kevin Annett)
260 Kennedy St.
Nanaimo, B.C. Canada V9R 2H8
ph: 250-753-3345
email: hiddenfromhistory@yahoo.ca
website: www.hiddenfromhistory.org
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