A day after arriving in Canada, Pope Francis is scheduled to go to the small Alberta prairie town of Maskwacis to deliver a historic apology. He’ll apologize for abuses and cultural repression of Indigenous children at Catholic-run residential schools across Canada in the 19th and 20th centuries. The Canadian government coordinated the schools in a policy to weaken Indigenous people’s identity and resistance to land grabs. Catholics ran most of the schools, and Protestants operated others. Thousands of school survivors and their supporters are expected at the ceremony. Francis arrived Sunday in Edmonton for a week-long trip that will also take him to Quebec City and the far-north territory of Nunavut.
