'We can forgive, but we'll never forget': residential school survivors in Manitoba travel to papal visit stop

Linda Daniels is getting ready to leave Portage la Prairie, Man., to travel to Edmonton for the Pope's first stop in the Canadian Papal visit. 

The 68-year old who was forced to attend the Sandy Bay Residential School is nervous about the emotions she'll feel if the Pope delivers an apology for the church's involvement in the residential school system.

"Once he says the apology … I know it's going to be hard," said Linda, who was overcome with emotions. 

"We are going to heal, the people are going to heal, and they'll rise up, and it's going to be a better place for our people." 

Linda is traveling with a Manitoba Assembly of First Nations delegation, and will be accompanied by family — including her brother Ernie Daniels, who is a survivor of the Portage la Prairie Residential School. 

This week's trip to Edmonton won't be the first time Linda has met the Pope. She was part of the First Nations, Inuit and Métis delegations that went to the Vatican earlier this year. 

"It was very, very hard, I had a hard time … I wanted to do it for my sisters, and my siblings, and my family, and the kids that didn't make it home," said Linda. 

"When I met the Pope, in my mind [when] I shook his hand, I said, 'feel our pain.'" 

Linda says the Pope listened intently to the survivors, and she walked away feeling like the Pope did in fact feel her pain. 

Andrew Carrier, who is vice president of the Winnipeg Métis Association, is leaving for Edmonton later this week with a delegation organized by the Manitoba Métis Federation. 

He's an Indian day school survivor, and says the trauma he experienced in school continues to haunt him. 

"I was seven years old not knowing what had taken place, and of course the shock of being accosted by the priest, it really changed my life," said Andrew Carrier, who attended École Sainte-Marie in St. Vital. 

"It wasn't until later that I realized that … [it] had stolen my innocence and put [in me] a fear in God." 

Next week's papal visit will be the second time Carrier will see Pope Francis; he was part of the Manitoba Métis Federation delegation that went to the Vatican.