B.C. Indigenous leaders welcome papal visit, but say sincerity and action are key to success

Indigenous leaders in British Columbia welcome the announcement of a visit from the Pope, but say the leader of the Catholic Church must understand their expectations.

Warning: This story deals with disturbing subject matter that may upset and trigger some readers. Discretion is advised.

Seven years ago, Chief Harvey McLeod and his mother travelled far from home in British Columbia’s Upper Nicola Valley to the Vatican.

His mother prayed and watched for 10 days, he told Global News, and on a Wednesday during their visit, Pope Francis came out to address a crowd of onlookers.

That’s when McLeod — a survivor of Canada’s harrowing residential school system — looked up at the head of the Catholic Church on a balcony and said, “I forgive you.”

“I could feel that energy go through me,” he recalled. “And I know that was my ultimate forgiveness to the church so that I can take the next steps on my journey of finding my peace and happiness.”

It’s a story he would like to share with Pope Francis when he visits Canada — a step toward reconciliation announced by the Vatican earlier this week.

McLeod, now chief of the Upper Nicola Band, attended the Kamloops Indian Residential School between 1966 and 1968 — two years that brought him a lifetime of trauma and anguish, he said.

“In them two years my whole life changed from a person with light, happiness and confidence to a person that wasn’t himself anywhere — that detached from the world, that actually told himself, ‘I’m not going to stand in the light anymore.'”