‘This is our moment’: Phil Fontaine on significance, expectations for Pope’s visit to Canada
Global News
Residential school survivor Phil Fontaine and lawyer Kathleen Mahoney are days away from their third encounter with a leader of the Roman Catholic Church.
Warning: This story deals with disturbing subject matter that may upset and trigger some readers. Discretion is advised.
Phil Fontaine took no speaking notes to the lectern at a University Canada West convocation ceremony in Vancouver earlier this month.
Dressed in a gown of blue and black, Fontaine — a natural storyteller, according to his wife — began his speech with a nod to the Coast Salish drummer and elder who led the ceremony with song and prayer.
“This is an innovation at such gatherings,” the former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations told an audience of more than 400 graduates.
“It’s important to recognize this innovation because it speaks to the transformation that’s taking place in our country.”
Over their distinguished careers and lifelong advocacy for human rights, both Fontaine and his partner, Kathleen Mahoney, have had front-row seats to Canada’s “transformation” in truth and reconciliation.
They were leading architects of the landmark Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement in 2006, which included a multi-billion-dollar package with compensation and support for survivors, and of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, whose findings have impacted policy at all levels of government.
In March and April, Fontaine and Mahoney made their second trip to the Vatican to share the gut-wrenching truth of residential schools, and call for a papal apology for their intergenerational harms.
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