True healing and reconciliation for Canada's aboriginal peoples will only come once poverty in their communities is eliminated, Assembly of First Nations national chief Phil Fontaine told about 90 bishops gathered in Cornwall yesterday.
Fontaine was the most-anticipated speaker at the annual plenary of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), which got under way Monday at the Nav Canada Training and Conference Centre.
"From our perspective, there's no greater challenge before this country than First Nations poverty," said Fontaine.
"It's an onerous burden, not just on the people that live the experience, but a burden on the entire country."
Fontaine's half-hour speech to the CCCB was influenced heavily by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's public apology in June for a long-running assimilation policy that forced roughly 150,000 Aboriginal children to leave their families and attend residential schools.
His remarks also came as the five-year Truth and Reconciliation Commission into abuse at those schools is set to begin public hearings this fall.