Source: The Conversation – Canada
In July 2022, the late Pope Francis came to Canada seeking forgiveness for the Catholic Church’s role in the residential school system, acknowledging it as genocide.
His penitential pilgrimage was intended to mark a new chapter in the relationship between the Catholic Church and Indigenous Peoples, calling for a renewed commitment of “walking together.”
Four years later, students at a Catholic high school in Grande Prairie, Alberta, offered a glimpse of what this commitment might look like in practice.
On Oct. 13, Indigenous and non-Indigenous students staged a demonstration to protest residential school denialism publicly endorsed by one of their social studies teachers on her personal Facebook page. They did so by walking out together.
Their peaceful disobedience was more than an act of protest. It was an expression of solidarity, a collective refusal to dismiss Indigenous experiences and a reminder that reconciliation is advanced not only through institutional apologies, but through the actions of those willing to stand together against injustice.
Challenge from inside Catholic institutions
We are married writing partners and PhD students whose respective areas of study involve Catholic theology and religion curriculum in Catholic schools. We approach this research from Anishinaabe (Noah) and settler (Erenna) perspectives. We have previously examined how colonial ideologies of institutional leadership within Catholic education can undermine commitments to reconciliation.
However, the Grande Prairie walkout offers an opportunity to consider the other side of this relationship: Students exercising their own agency at the grassroots level to challenge injustice from within a Catholic institution.
Students were responding to a Facebook post by a social studies teacher at their high school on Sept. 30, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, also known as Orange Shirt Day.
The post shared a statement from Maxime Bernier, the leader of the People’s Party of Canada, which partly reads: “Let’s tell the truth: no bodies were found in Kamloops. The residential-school ‘genocide’ claim is a hoax.” The teacher added “Hear, hear!” on her status update.
Read more:
We fact-checked residential school denialists and debunked their ‘mass grave hoax’ theory
In an interview, the teacher told CBC News she is “not a residential school denialist, which many people have framed me as.”
Reconciliation, resistance and solidarity
For reconciliation to be meaningful, it must amount to more than institutional apologies and commemorations, especially when members of those institutions undermine the commitments made.
In Red Skin, White Masks, Dene political scientist Glen Sean Coulthard argues that reconciliation focused on institutional forgiveness, without radically transforming colonial relationships, leaves Indigenous people vulnerable to ongoing harms.
This is similarly the case when institutions fail to adequately prevent denialism.
Read more:
5 ways teachers can respond to residential school denialism in the classroom
Combating these institutional shortcomings often requires resistance. Coulthard says resistance is not an obstacle to reconciliation but an expression of Indigenous agency and self-determination.
Seen this way, the Grande Prairie walkout was more than a protest against one teacher’s posts: It was students refusing to let reconciliation remain an institutional promise.
Equally significant was the solidarity of the students who walked out together. Coulthard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, a Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar, describe solidarity rooted in mutual responsibility and collective resistance, not sympathy alone, in their article Grounded Normativity / Place-Based Solidarity.
Such solidarity asks more of institutions that apologize while their own members or representatives deny the truth.
It’s worth noting that the student walkout happened at a school named for Pope John Paul II, who in a 1979 address to young people stated: “Liberation, even in the social sense, begins with knowledge and courageous proclamation of the truth.”
Teaching for justice
In a recent Warrior Life podcast interview, Mi’kmaw lawyer and author Pam Palmater spoke with Indigenous studies professor and writer Niigaan Sinclair and historian Sean Carleton about their newly published book, Truth Before Reconciliation: Confronting Residential School Denialism.
Sinclair, a member of Peguis First Nation, notes that for over a century, Canadians have been miseducated and misinformed about the residential school system — yet younger generations are generally now being exposed to either courses or credentialed research on the topic of truth and reconciliation.
This learning, we argue, instils a strong sense of historical and information literacy. All generations need opportunities to learn the same, and to identify and counter residential schools denialism.
Read more:
Confronting residential schools denialism is an ethical and shared Canadian responsibility
A desire to counter denialism was exemplified by the young adults who stood up for the injustice and false narrative they observed by a member of their school community.
One student stated at the walkout: “My grandma was in residential schools, and I just don’t think this is OK. And I’m Kaska Dena too.” Another added: “Young people should not be underestimated.”
Indigenous and non-Indigenous student allies came together to exemplify unity in a matter that challenged their comfort and privilege.
Kanienʼkehà:ka interdisciplinary scholar Jennifer Brant argues that Canada needs curricula that confronts colonial violence and has the power to support students as they “work through their emotional investments in ways that call for social justice.”
Student agency was demonstrated by the approximately 120 teens who stood up for their personal convictions on Oct. 13. They demonstrated the ongoing positive impacts of calls for teaching truth about residential schools.
Moving momentum forward
As Pope Francis reminded us in a papal letter about fraternity and social friendship: “Authentic reconciliation does not flee from conflict.”
Reconciliation cannot simply mean preserving institutional harmony or avoiding uncomfortable truths. It requires the courage to confront misinformation, acknowledge historical realities and not only recognize truth, but defend it.
Following the walkout, the Grande Prairie Catholic School Division issued a media release stating that: “Our Catholic faith calls us to uphold the dignity of every person, listen with compassion and work toward justice and reconciliation.”
The division pledged to advance truth and reconciliation through education, meaningful relationships and action.
While these are promising commitments, the students’ direct action signifies that there needs to be more than just pacifying gestures.
Moral responsibility
Having played a significant role in Canada’s genocidal residential school system, Catholic institutions now bear a particular moral responsibility to confront the denial of that history, including within their own ranks.
The students of St. John Paul II Catholic School remind us that the success of Catholic education should not be measured solely by what students learn about faith and justice, but by their willingness to act when faced with injustice.
Perhaps the most hopeful sign of reconciliation is not simply that the next generation is learning to walk together, but that they are willing to walk out together.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/11/15/walking-out-together-happens-when-students-resist-denialism-in-catholic-education/