‘Help towards healing’: Oblates share residential school records

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This article was published 04/12/2024 (645 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The personnel records of Oblate priests who worked at residential schools in Canada are now available to survivors, Indigenous communities and researchers.

Records, information and documents will be shared after an agreement was signed Wednesday between the Oblates of Mary Immaculate and the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.

“As Oblates, we were complicit in a colonial system that harmed Indigenous people,” said Fr. Ken Thorson, head of OMI Lacombe Canada. “Now we want to do what we can to make it right.”

The agreement specifies personnel files of Oblate members who have been deceased for at least two years will be available for research. Previously, those records were sealed until 50 years after a member’s death.

To ensure the files are fully and transparently available, the Oblates also agreed to fund an archivist position at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation at the University of Manitoba to oversee the transfer of the records, and to conduct research and ensure accurate documentation.

Thorson said the agreement flows out of the order’s 1991 apology for its involvement in the majority of the 70 residential schools operated by the Roman Catholic Church in Canada. It is part of their ongoing commitment to support survivors, their families, communities and researchers, he said.

The agreement represents a “meaningful step forward, while recognizing that significant work lies ahead,” he said, adding the Oblates will continue to “approach this work with humility and a willingness to learn through engagement, dialogue, and meaningful conversations.”

Thorson said the deal will see the records of at least 400 Oblate priests become available through the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. The records contain information about which schools the priests worked at and what their roles were.

“I don’t know what people will find in those records, but if something is important, we want it to be available,” he said. “We want to do what we can to help towards healing.”

The head of archives at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation commended the Oblates.

Raymond Frogner, who is also senior director of research at the centre, said the order is being “much more open than any other public archive in Canada … I appreciate their openness.”

Discussions about sharing the records have been ongoing for about three years, Thorson said, noting there were “unplanned delays” on both sides.

“It took longer than we hoped,” Thorson said.

The records currently reside in Alberta, B.C., Quebec and Manitoba.

Frogner said having access to the records “should be a real help for survivors,” but added he doesn’t expect to find any startling revelations in them.

“These are the official dossiers on the performance of the priests, information about their religious formation, their assignments, performance reviews,” he said. “We could expect to learn how they were doing, and if there were any problems.”

That would include if a priest was breaking any laws or involved in any harmful activities towards children, Frogner said, adding he hopes to arrive at similar agreements with female Roman Catholic religious orders that provided staff for residential schools.

The agreement with the Oblates “could be a stepping stone to get those records,” Frogner said.

Prior to the agreement, 80 per cent of all handwritten journals from Oblate missionaries had been digitized, inventoried and transmitted to the centre, with the Oblates providing funding for archivists to gather and digitize these records. The Oblates also worked with the centre to provide it with access to its records in Rome.

“This is another important step towards reconciliation,” Thorson said. “But we can’t lose sight of the fact that significant work remains to be done.”

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