First Nations delegates to call on Pope Francis to revoke church doctrine used to justify colonialism
CBC
Members of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) will urge Pope Francis on Thursday to revoke centuries-old papal decrees used to justify the seizure of Indigenous land in the Americas by colonial powers.
Two papal bulls issued in 1455 and and 1493 gave the church's blessing to explorers' claims to Africa and the Americas.
The Doctrine of Discovery is based largely on those papal bulls, issued by Pope Nicholas V and Pope Alexander VI.
"If you look at our history ... what happened since they landed on our shores, then basically it's genocide," said Gerald Antoine, Dene national chief-elect and AFN regional chief of the Northwest Territories.
"We need to right the wrong."
The AFN delegation — the last Indigenous group from Canada to meet privately with the Pope this week before a final public audience on Friday — plans to call on the Vatican to scrap the doctrine.
The move would fulfil the Roman Catholic Church's role in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's call to action 49, which urges all religious and faith groups to repudiate concepts used to justify European sovereignty over Indigenous lands and people.
The Doctrine of Discovery declared lands held by Indigenous Peoples to be terra nullius — Latin for "nobody's land."
Kaluhyanu;wes Michelle Schenandoah, a member of the Oneida Nation, said the basis for the doctrine was the belief that non-Christian Indigenous Peoples were without souls.
"Because we didn't have souls, that gave the right for these explorers to do whatever they wanted with Indigenous Peoples — murder, rape, enslave," she said.
Schenandoah said the doctrine has shaped the mentality and behaviour of Western culture for centuries.
She also said there's a direct connection between the doctrine and the disappearances and deaths of Indigenous women in Canada.
In many pre-contact Indigenous nations, she said, women had the final say on how the land was used — making them obstacles to European exploration and settlement.
"When you look at how these countries have treated Indigenous women, we are on the bottom rung," Schenandoah said. "Because the doctrine has placed us in this place of being invisible and dispensable, therefore the countries treat us this way.
The new owner of Ontario steelmaker Stelco says his company "will not disappoint the people of Hamilton and Nanticoke," where the business's major facilities are based.
A Winnipegger is warning others about an intricate scam she says she almost fell for.
Fort William First Nation is opposing a planned redevelopment of the Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) 117 year old Kakabeka Falls Generating Station, which is located in their traditional territory.
A building that sits at the corner of Sussex Street and Brunswick Avenue has had many lives over the last century — being a church, a school and offices. Now it's set to become housing, at a time when the city sorely needs it.
A Waterloo, Ont., elementary school principal will be sentenced in the new year after pleading guilty to child sexual exploitation charges following a joint investigation that involved the London, Toronto and Waterloo police services.
Students at UPEI have let their student union know what they want from the province this fiscal year, and those priorities are reflected in a 2024-2025 advocacy document brought to the legislature on Wednesday.
Larger communities in the N.W.T. will soon see a boost in their territorial funding to maintain infrastructure and deliver services — like water and waste management — but the increase still falls short of what communities need.
The toxic drug crisis has taken more than 47,000 lives in Canada since 2016 and the synthetic opioid fentanyl has become a household name. But now, what's believed to be an even more potent class of synthetic drugs is showing up in drug busts across the country: nitazenes.
The Liberal government and the NDP have agreed to introduce a two-month GST vacation on certain items before the holiday season, Radio-Canada has learned.
Veterinarians are warning Londoners to make sure their dogs are vaccinated and keeping clean after a deadly virus outbreak was declared in London this week.
Registered nurses rallied in St. John's Wednesday as part of a week-long convention, again calling on the Newfoundland and Labrador government to create permanent solutions to staff shortages and workplace violence.