Indigenous leader calls on N.L. to apologize for province's union with Canada

A statue of John Cabot stares out to sea from the foot of the steps of Newfoundland and Labrador's provincial legislature building, in St. John's, Aug. 29, 2021. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sarah Smellie)

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. -

A Mi'kmaq leader in Newfoundland says it's time for the Newfoundland and Labrador government to apologize for leaving Indigenous groups out of the province's agreement with Canada when it joined the country in 1949.

Chief Mi'sel Joe of the Miawpukek First Nation said it was bittersweet to watch Pope Francis apologize Friday for the abuses committed by members of the Roman Catholic Church against Indigenous children in Canadian residential schools. On one hand, Joe said, he was happy the Pope apologized, adding that he was elated for the Indigenous delegates who went to Rome hoping for an apology.

But on the other, Joe said, the apology highlighted the setbacks faced by Mi'kmaq people in Newfoundland as a result of Indigenous people being left out of the province's terms of union with Canada. It also underscored the lack of apology from the provincial government for the harm inflicted by residential and day schools in Newfoundland and Labrador, he said.

Until those apologies are made, Joe said in an interview Tuesday, "we're not going forward, we're going backward."

The province's terms of union with Canada in 1949 made no mention of its Indigenous populations and they denied them federal recognition and access to services for decades. The Miawpukek First Nation wasn't federally recognized under the Indian Act until 1987.

"To some degree we're still not (recognized) because we don't have a treaty like the rest of the Maritimes," Joe said. The Mi'kmaq people of Newfoundland weren't well represented in the Pope's apology Friday, he added, because it took so long for Canada to even recognize the First Nation in the province.

In 2017, the Newfoundland and Labrador government promised to apologize for the province's residential schools, but the plans have been repeatedly delayed, most recently by the COVID-19 pandemic. The apology still hasn't happened.

"The government of Newfoundland and Labrador is proceeding with plans to deliver apologies to former Indigenous students of residential schools, their families, and communities," said an email Tuesday from government spokesman Allan Bock, who works with the Labrador Affairs Secretariat. "Government is exploring options with Indigenous governments and organizations on the most appropriate approach to fulfil this commitment, as well as reviewing the wording of the messages."

Joe said he hopes the apology includes day schools, where many Indigenous children, including Mi'kmaq children along Newfoundland's southern coast, experienced abuse at the hands of Roman Catholic priests and educators. He gave the example of Rev. Stanley St. Croix, who settled in the area in the early 1900s and set up a church. St. Croix also abolished the office of the Miawpukek chief and forbade the use of the Mi'kmaw language in schools, Joe said.

The church influenced Mi'kmaq schools until 1997, when the province ended the denominational school system, he added.

Joe said the current government led by Andrew Furey is "much better" than previous governments at moving reconciliation forward.

"But we need to do more," he said. "Education becomes a burden, we have to educate everybody. That shouldn't be our job, but it is our job at this stage."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 5, 2022.