ST. JOHN’S, NL (CU)_Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, on Tuesday, kicked off a three-day tour of Canada, in honour of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations this year. The began the tour by meeting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and governor general Mary Simon in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, on the country’s east coast.
Following a formal welcome to the province’s capital city, the Prince of Wales used his first speech of the tour acknowledge the atrocities committed against indigenous people and their abuse in residential schools in Canada. “As we look to our collective future, as one people sharing one planet, we must find new ways to come to terms with the darker and more difficult aspects of the past: acknowledging, reconciling and striving to do better,” he said. “It is a process that starts with listening. I have greatly appreciated the opportunity to discuss with the governor general the vital process of reconciliation in this country – not a one-off act, of course, but an ongoing commitment to healing, respect and understanding.”
The royal visit comes just a year following the discovery of remains of over 200 children at the site of a former residential school for indigenous children in Canada. The Kamloops Indian Residential School, in the province of British Columbia, was once Canada’s largest residential school before it closed in 1978. Investigations into the now-dismantled education system has revealed that many of these children suffered physical abuse, rape, malnutrition and other atrocities. It was also discovered that indigenous children were found to have forcibly separated from their families, in what is now called “cultural genocide”.
Ahead of their visit to Canada this week, the royal couple faced calls from indigenous communities for the Queen to issue a formal apology for the treatment of indigenous people in education institutions. While Prince Charles did acknowledge the atrocities, no such apology was made. However, during a recent visit to Canada, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby made an apology for the “terrible crime” of the Anglican Church’s involvement in Canada’s residential schools, and Pope Francis is expected to do the same for the abuse suffered by indigenous people at the hands of the Catholic Church, when he visits the country this summer.
