Response to the Prime Minister’s Apology to Aboriginal Peoples
By The EFC’s Aboriginal Ministries Council

These are interesting days and it was amazing to see the apology by the government of Canada to the survivors of the residential schools and their families. When I first heard about the coming apology I was concerned that there would be an attempt to limit the apology in some fashion and miss an opportunity to continue the push toward a shared mutual identity in Canada. This was also the concern from one member of our Aboriginal Ministry Council, Dean Shingoose:

As an Indian Residential School survivor I'm still reflecting on the apology. I think it was an
historic apology and PM Steven Harper seemed genuinely sincere …. I feel that if someone
apologizes and asks for forgiveness I need to forgive….

The residential school experience has shaped the relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal in Canada. The hurt was particularly felt by those who were in the residential school system. Other Aboriginal children were forced into education programs, even though on reserves, and learned a history that was not theirs and lost their own heritage and history. Others were hurt by the ripple effect which had gone out into the communities and people’s lives across the country. Language is lost; culture is vilified. But perhaps with the apology this is the beginning of a new day. When the PM apologized to the survivors and their families our hope is, as Dean Shingoose puts it,“that good will come of [the apology].”

We believe that good will come out of the apology issued by the Canadian people if we continue in the “theme of the apology of repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation and healing.”¹ There have been efforts aimed in this direction in the recent past. On January 7, 1998, the federal government issued a statement of reconciliation, and now a bit over 10 years later there is an apology. These efforts can be furthered if everyone –Aboriginal and non Aboriginal—owns their part in the process of coming together to write a new chapter in Canadian history.

I hope that when Canadians heard their government’s apology there were not those who said, “It wasn’t me, I don’t need to apologize.” We have all been impoverished in our relationships because of the effects of a colonial enterprise run amok. I hope that we can all begin to take another step in the direction of healing. What we must not do is say, “what is passed is past.” The regret that we expressed within our council was expressed well by Mavis Etienne: “I know that my relatives who went to residential schools would have loved to have heard that someone was sorry for the abuse that they went through, however they took their sorrow to the grave.” I hope that we remember what happened, not to hold on to bitterness, but that so the memory of the past would push us to pursue shalom—justice and peace intertwined.

Council member Dean Shingoose coined the phrase this week, “to continue the theme of the Apology.” Let me suggest the theme of restorative justice. An attempt at reconciliation which might help us to think through what has happened in the apology because what has happened in Canada is not primarily a breakdown in law, but a breakdown in relationship.² We need restorative justice because it is aimed at repairing relationship. Thus, when trying to walk in the theme of restorative justice there are three large tasks, according to Rev. Dr. Pierre Allard: Tell the truth; really listen; come up with a shared plan to repair the damage.³

Let me suggest three tasks that Canadian evangelicals need to take in order to be better agents of reconciliation and that might help Canada in the continuation of walking toward restorative justice.

Task #1 A universalism of intention, not pretension⁴ (walking in the light of 1 John; the one who says they are without sin is a liar and the truth is not in him): Tell the truth.

When it came to residential schools the country and often the evangelical Church denied the truth by not acknowledging their responsibility for residential schools. But everyone was implicated by the residential schools, either because they ran residential schools or they stood by and did nothing to attempt to stop them. Elijah Harper, former Manitoba MLA, called for a Sacred Assembly in 1995 in an attempt to seek a spiritual solution to the broken and strained relationships in Canada. There have been other attempts at reconciliation over the last few years. Many churches have begun offering apologies and held different reconciliation gatherings, including the one held between the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada and the First Nations Alliance Churches of Canada, in 1996. The apology offered by the PM could be viewed under the rubric of 'telling the truth'.

Even before any of the above we should also see the Royal Commission on Aboriginal People as an attempt to tell the truth. It was by far the most comprehensive attempt to try and form an all party solution to the problems in Canada. It offers a valuable resource for educating all peoples on the history and on-going relationship between First Peoples and the Canadian government.

Task #2 A theology of suffering, not of triumphalism: Listening instead of talking.

It is a humbling experience for the country to admit or confess its mistakes and enter into the suffering of others. The apology by the federal government, I suppose, might be an attempt to placate some people by saying, “see how much we have done.” But I choose to believe that it is an attempt to enter into the suffering of Aboriginal people. It is an attempt to own part of the Canadian identity that has been denied in the past. It is part of telling the truth and entering into suffering to admit one’s own short comings and to own failure as part of that identity. Not to just live in failure, but to acknowledge shortcomings and then attempt to move forward. I think with the implementation of the Commission of truth and Reconciliation an attempt is being made to listen to Aboriginal peoples. To listen to them tell their stories so that, I hope, as a country we gain the strength to change, to not only affirm the identity each person, but also the group identity of the many nations or groups of people who make up Canada. It is interesting that suffering is what moves us to hear one another, not just the suffering of Aboriginal people, but all humans, and when we enter into this suffering, somehow Christ meets us there and brings healing. As well, it is only through confession that we find the unity and peace that we desire. Funny, it is not in proclaiming our own righteousness that people are impacted for Christ but rather by confessing and forgiving. The danger then will be that we do not listen and feel deeply enough to give us the strength to change.

Task #3 Reconciliation, repentance, restoration (How can two walk together unless they both agree?): Come up with a shared plan.

I wonder if we will be ready in the years ahead to come up with a real plan to repair the damage. We must not let ourselves stop short of this. We have had two failed or incomplete attempts in the recent past, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples and the Kelowna Accord. People opted out of the desired solutions presented. Perhaps now we can write a new chapter in Canadian history. Perhaps, the apology marks a new chapter in that the Canadian government will acknowledge their need to return lands to Aboriginal people to empower them to move toward economic viability which goes with their own political reality as nations of people. Perhaps in situations like Oka, Ipperwash and Caledonia,  it will be possible to resolve land claims justly, without having to resort to protest against government claims – backed by force – of ownership or the need to maintain the status quo.

I think that the Church has been a part of the problem in the past, but now it is going to continue to be a vital part of the solution. These are exciting days, thank you for your part in the whole story.

Ray Aldred, Chair
On behalf of the Aboriginal Ministries Council

ENDNOTES
1. Dean Shingoose remarks on the apology.
2. Pierre Allard, “Restorative Justice: Lost Treasure” lecture given at Canadian Theological Seminary, Regina, Saskatchewan, March 11, 1999.
3. Ibid.
4. David Stewart and Joseph Bien, eds. Political and Social Essays by Paul Ricoeur (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1974), 148.

Related webpages: EFC President Bruce J. Clemenger sent a letter to the prime minister June 13 to thank him for this public apology.