“I accept and I confess before God and you, our failures in the residential schools.
Excerpt from Apology to Native People
We failed you. We failed ourselves. We failed God.”
Archbishop Michael Peers (August 6, 1993)
The Anglican Church of Canada acknowledges the harm we caused through our involvement in the Indian Residential Schools system. Survivors carried these truths long before they were widely recognized, and their leadership continues to guide our response. As a Church made up of Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, we recognize that we hold different relationships to this history yet share a responsibility to face it with honesty, repentance and renewed commitment.
Apologies
1993: Apology to Native Peoples
On August 6, 1993, Archbishop Michael Peers, then-Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, offered an apology to survivors for the Church’s role in the residential schools system. His words continue to mark a turning point in our shared story of truth-telling and accountability. Church leaders have since reaffirmed this apology and recognized the lasting harm residential institutions inflicted on individuals, families and communities.
2019: Apology for Spiritual Harm
On July 11, 2019, Archbishop Fred Hiltz, then-Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, offered an Apology for Spiritual Harm to Indigenous peoples during the national gathering of the General Synod. The apology recognized the damage caused when Indigenous identity, language and spiritual practices were dismissed or suppressed. Elders responded with honesty and generosity, offering reflections that continue to shape our commitments.
2022: An apology on behalf of the Church of England
In 2022, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby’s Canadian visit to several Indigenous communities brought further reconciliation. Archbishop Justin offered an apology for the Church of England’s legacy of colonialism and the harm done to Indigenous peoples. An excerpt:
For that terrible crime, sin, evil, of deliberately… building hell and putting children into it, and staffing it—I am more sorry than I could ever, ever begin to express. … I am ashamed. I am horrified. I ask myself where does that come from, that evil? It has nothing, nothing, to do with Christ.
— Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, May 1, 2022
Compensation and settlement commitments
Under the 2007 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA), the Anglican Church of Canada contributed about $15.7 million through direct compensation, healing initiatives and in-kind support for survivors, following earlier commitments made in a 2003 Anglican Agreement. This work included support for community-led healing, through reconciliation-focused initiatives like the Anglican Healing Fund. These efforts represent just one part of our responsibility to acknowledge the harm done and to participate faithfully in the work of truth and reconciliation.
To learn more about the Church’s ongoing work and commitments in education, advocacy and reconciliation, visit Reconciliation and right relations today.