Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Pope Francis, The Apology, and the optics of performative penitence

Pope Francis, The Apology, and the optics of performative penitence

  Gosh, that was some “penitential pilgrimage,” wasn’t it? Now that his visit to Canada is over, Pope Francis must be counting his blessings. After all, the historic and long-awaited papal apology on native land—an act of contrition for the terrible injustices that Indigenous children experienced in Church-run residential schools—went off pretty much as he might have planned it. His Holiness enjoyed saturation media coverage during a slow news week in the host country (even…

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Reconciliation: What’s next?

Reconciliation: What’s next?

  Since the issue of Wet’suwet’en land rights and title has landed where it truly belongs—in a discussion amongst the Wet’suwet’en people themselves, the only ones who ought to be determining the relationship between hereditary and elected leadership—I’ve done some more reflecting on the meaning of “reconciliation,” a word that’s been thrown around a lot during the ongoing Coastal GasLink pipeline dispute. Last month, I was in Ottawa on business when I happened to drop in on one…

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