Federal government under pressure to collect records from Rome

WARNING: This story contains distressing details.

The federal government is under pressure to demand Catholic church entities hand over relevant residential school records to Canadian investigators and survivor communities.

Two NDP members of Parliament wrote to Canada's Justice Minister David Lametti last week calling on him to take the "necessary steps" to have documents, some of which were recently revealed to be in Rome, returned to Canada. 

"We are writing to express our dismay regarding reports that the Oblate religious order has shifted archival records relating to residential schools in Canada to the Vatican," states the letter from the New Democrats, referring to a CBC story detailing the experience of Ottawa historians and their discovery of missing Canadian records.

"Any documents relating to the Oblate control of residential schools are evidence and must be treated as such."

The letter was signed by northern Ontario MP Charlie Angus and Lori Idlout, Nunavut MP and critic for Northern Affairs and Crown-Indigenous relations. 

The Oblates, a Catholic order that ran 48 residential schools across Canada, also operated the Sir Joseph Bernier Federal Day School in Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut. That is where Idlout's parents went to school. 

Former students at the Chesterfield Inlet school and its residence have previously spoken of being physically and sexually abused.

"Having lived with the experiences of intergenerational trauma, what happened at residential schools was a crime," said Idlout.

"We need to make sure that these evidences stay in Canada so that we can ensure that First Nations, Métis and Inuit are able to use them to make sure that we're getting the justice that we deserve." 

Historians recently told CBC they uncovered new evidence to suggest some archival records relating to residential schools in northern Saskatchewan are now only available in Rome. 

"The records that we had looked at here are no longer in this country," said Brenda Macdougall, a professor and research chair in Métis family and community traditions at the University of Ottawa.

Idlout, a lawyer who won her seat in September's federal election, said on the campaign trail she heard stories from residential school survivors in Canada's North. 

"It was such a heartache to hear these experiences," she said.