Two Catholic religious communities which were involved in operating many of the residential schools in Canada have issued a joint statement, “We remain deeply sorry for our involvement in residential schools and the harms they brought to Indigenous peoples and communities.”

The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, commonly known as the Oblates, operated 48 schools, including the Marieval Indian Residential School at Cowessess First Nation and the Kamloops Indian Residential School.

They say they are committed to disclosing all historical documents maintained by their order which are in their possession. With the news of as many as 751 graves at Marieval and 215 at Kamloops they offered a formal commitment statement, “Consistent with the Oblate Apology, given in 1991, our two Oblate religious communities (OMI Lacombe Canada and Notre-Dame-du-Cap) have worked to make our historical documents available through partnerships with universities, archives, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. While some progress has been made, this disclosure is not complete, and has been complicated by issues of provincial and national privacy laws.”

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They also say they are aware delays can cause ongoing distrust, distress, and trauma to Indigenous peoples across British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and the rest of the country.
For this reason, we declare that our commitment to transparency involves the following:
• We will disclose and not block access to the historical documents maintained by us and in our possession, as is possible within the law, to establish the truth of what happened in residential schools;
• We will seek guidance from and work with First Nations and federal and provincial governments on these matters;
• We will work with bishops and other leaders in the Catholic church to support full truth in these matters.