Inuit leader not celebrating meeting with Pope Francis, his agenda is to ‘seek justice’
Global News
Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, has a specific item on his agenda: justice for alleged victims of a Roman Catholic priest accused of crimes against children.
The leader of the national organization representing Inuit people says it will not be a celebratory occasion when he meets with Pope Francis at the Vatican next week as part of an Indigenous delegation.
Natan Obed has a specific item on his agenda: justice for alleged victims of a Roman Catholic priest accused of crimes against children.
Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, wants the church to hold to account an Oblate priest, Johannes Rivoire, who continues to live free despite multiple allegations of sexual abuse linked to his time in Nunavut.
“He is still alive and has not faced legal prosecution,” Obed said in a recent interview.
Rivoire was in Canada from the early 1960s to 1993, when he returned to France.
A warrant was issued for his arrest in 1998. He faced at least three charges of sexual abuse in the Nunavut communities of Arviat, Rankin Inlet and Naujaat. More than two decades later, the charges were stayed.
The Public Prosecution Service of Canada said at the time it was partly due to France’s reluctance to extradite.
Inuit leaders and politicians have continued to urge that the priest, now in his 90s, face trial. Those calls have become even louder with the discovery of unmarked graves at the sites of former residential schools run by the Catholic Church, Obed said.