The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) is a missionary religious congregation in the Catholic Church. As part of their mission to evangelize the "abandoned poor", the Oblates are known for their mission among the Indigenous peoples of Canada, and their historic administration of at least 57 schools within the Canadian Indian residential school system. Some of those schools have been associated with cases of child abuse by Oblate clergy and staff.
The OMI founded the University of Ottawa in 1848, then the College of Bytown. Since the University of Ottawa became publicly funded in 1965, Saint Paul University exists as a separate but federated institution with a pontifical charter to grant ecclesiastical degrees and a public charter, through the University of Ottawa, to grant civil degrees. The congregation has been involved in religious and secular publishing, helping to establish a number of church, community, and ethnic newspapers in Canada including Ottawa's francophone daily newspaper Le Droit.
OMI's Canadian presence is currently administered in three geographic provinces: Notre-Dame-du-Cap (French), housed at Notre-Dame-du-Cap Basilica in Trois-Rivières, Quebec"Historical Summary", Sanctuaire Notre-Dame-du-Cap Lacombe (English),Lacombe also administers OMI's missions to Kenya. with offices in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and Dominican University College in Ottawa, Ontario Assumption (Polish), based in Toronto, Ontario. As of July 2019, there were 282 Oblate priests working in Canada.
History
In 1841, at the request of Bishop Ignace Bourget, OMI sent its first missionaries to Canada.Sylvain, Philippe. "Bourget, Ignace", Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 11, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 1982 Arriving first at St-Hilaire in Montérégie, the Oblates then settled in Montreal and Bytown (Ottawa). The Oblates began in parish missions and later, moved to parishes in poor areas. The Oblates expanded to Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Moose Factory, and Fort Albany in James Bay. In 1845, at the request of the Bishop of Saint Boniface, Norbert Provencher, the Oblates went to Red River Colony, Manitoba. This was the beginning of their missions of Western and Northern Canada.
Arriving at the Métis Red River Colony in a birch bark canoe in 1845, Oblate Alexandre-Antonin Taché (1823–1894) was ordained by Bishop Provencher. Taché was elevated to Bishop of Saint Boniface in 1854, a year after Provencher's death. In 1857, Taché selected 13-year-old Louis Riel as a candidate for the priesthood and sent him to study at College de Montreal. After Riel returned in 1857, he became increasingly involved in Métis leadership and led the Red River Rebellion. Taché acted as intermediary between Riel's provisional government and Canadian Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's Cabinet and then worked to establish the terms of the Manitoba Act of 1870, which would join the colony to Canada. After the failure of rebellion, Taché unsuccessfully advocated for Riel's amnesty.
To facilitate their mission, after his installation as Titular bishop of Ibora in 1890, and ordination as Bishop of Athabaska in 1891, Émile Grouard instructed Oblates to construct of a fleet of steamboats. The Western Canadian steamships of the Oblate Order of Mary Immaculate consisted of at least four boats, including St. Alphonse (built in 1894) and St. Charles (built in 1903). The boats also carried supplies for the North-West Mounted Police and Hudson's Bay Company.
Treaty 11
In order to receive funding from the Canadian Government for the OMI mission to the Dene people, the area they served needed to be under treaty. From 1909 to 1921, Oblate Gabriel-Joseph-Elie Breynat, Vicar Apostolic of Mackenzie and titular Bishop, lobbied and negotiated so that the Dene would have such a treaty but reception from the Canadian government was lukewarm. This changed in 1921 when, driven primarily by desire for rights to newly discovered oil, Duncan Campbell Scott, Superintendent of Indian Affairs approached Breynat for his support to "insure the success" of treaty negotiations with the Dene. Known for being part of the negotiations for Treaty 8, Breynat accompanied treaty commissioner, Henry Anthony Conroy, through the negotiations, and witnessed Treaty 11, signing at eight out of nine commission visits across the territory. Conroy noted, "I was very glad to be accompanied by His Lordship Bishop Breynat, O.M.I., who has considerable influence with the Indians in the North, and would like here to express my appreciation of the help and hospitality accorded to me and my party in his missions..." Meanwhile, Breynat noted, "I may say that I am responsible for the treaty having been signed at several places, especially at Fort Simpson." The last of the Numbered Treaties, Treaty 11 bound the Slavey, Tłı̨chǫ (Dogrib), Gwichʼin, Sahtu (Hare), and other peoples in the vast area, which would become part of the Northwest Territories and Yukon under the Government of Canada's jurisdiction.
Order of Canada protest In December 2008, representatives of Assumption OMI returned two Order of Canada medals to the office of the Governor General of Canada in protest over the honour being bestowed to Henry Morgentaler, noted Canadian abortion rights advocate. While the medals themselves were returned, the honours, given in 1979 to Oblate Michael J. Smith (1911–2002) for "his success in integrating war refugees into new surroundings and of his deep concern for the Polish community at large" and in 1971 to Oblate Anthony Sylla, for his "dedicated services for over sixty years as an Oblate missionary to immigrant settlers in Western Canada", are still valid.
Residential school administration (1884–1990)
In 1876, Canada established the Indian Act. To fulfill various treaty obligations to provide education to Indigenous peoples, the Act provided for Indigenous education at day schools built on reserves.
Oblate Vital-Justin Grandin, Bishop of St. Albert advocated for Indigenous children to "become civilized" through residential schools. In 1880, he wrote to Public Works Minister Hector-Louis Langevin, explaining that boarding schools were best to make Indigenous children "forget the customs, habits & language of their ancestors".
In 1884, the Indian Act was amended to allow the Governor in Council to "make regulations [committing] children of Indian blood under the age of sixteen years, to such industrial school or boarding school, there to be kept, cared for and educated [until age] eighteen". The Act was further amended via The Indian Advancement Act, 1884, establishing that the denomination of teachers at reserve schools was determined by the dominant religion already present, but with provision for minority denominations to have a separate school with permission of the Governor in Council. This allowed for churches to establish schools, not based on existing denominational presence, but to fulfil missionary work.
A primary operator of Canadian Indian residential schools, the OMI maintained at least 57 (41%) of 139 total schools funded by the Government of Canada, including Atlantic Canada's only residential school, the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School.
In 1887, missionary physician, Nicolas Coccola, arrived at the site of the Jesuit mission to the Kootenay of British Columbia and established a residential school (1890) and silver mine (1895).
In 1920, the Indian Act was again amended, making it mandatory for all Indigenous children between age seven and sixteen to attend an Indian Residential School. In 1933, principals of residential schools were conferred legal guardianship of the children attending the school via the Act.
"Flying school buses" On November 27, 1930, Breynat was a Commercial Airways passenger with the Mother Provincial of the Sisters of Charity (The Grey Nuns) traveling from Fort McMurray to Fort Chipewyan. On landing, the plane struck gasoline cans on the runway and collided into a group of children. Four were killed, five injured, and the RCMP gave aid. In 1937, Breynat purchased a Waco biplane (CF-BDY) to be flown by Louis Bisson .
In 1938, "The Flying Priest", Oblate Paul Schulte (1896–1975) conducted a medical evacuation from Arctic Bay, transporting Oblate Julien Cochard to Chesterfield Inlet in a Stinson Reliant floatplane.
, Vicar Apostolic of Mackenzie purchased a Noorduyn Norseman bush plane (CF-GTM) in February 1952 and based it in Fort Smith. In 1954, the OMI began taking children to schools from their communities by the "Arctic Wings" airplane, which resulted in a reduction in police escort records from that period. Oblate William A. Leising shuttled the children to residential schools, calling his plane the "flying school bus", picking them up from their communities and landing at Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut, Aklavik, Northwest Territories, and Churchill, Manitoba.
The Norseman aircraft operated until 1957 when it was sold and replaced by a de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver (CF-OMI).
Revelations, reconciliation, and the contemporary ministry since 1991 On March 15, 1991, after its National Meeting on Indian Residential Schools, the Catholic Church recognized that the "negative experiences in the Residential Schools cannot be considered in isolation from the root causes of the indignities and injustices suffered by aboriginal peoples." This was followed by a statement from Oblate Conference of Canada President Douglas Crosby, on July 24, 1991, stating an apology on "certain aspects" of its ministry. Noting that the Oblate was soon to celebrate its 150th anniversary of ministering to Native peoples of Canada, Crosby wrote that the OMI recognized that they were a "key player" in the "implementation of cultural, ethnic, linguistic, and religious imperialism" that "threatened the cultural, linguistic, and religious traditions of native peoples". Crosby also noted that sexual and physical abuse had occurred at the residential schools, and that the instances were "inexcusable, intolerable, and a betrayal of trust." Further, Crosby noted that the OMI renewed its commitment to work with Native peoples in a renewed relationship seeking to "move past mistakes to a new level of respect and mutuality."
In 1991, Oblate Hubert O'Connor (1928–2007), Bishop of Prince George was charged with sex crimes and resigned his see. Initially convicted in 1996 of rape and indecent assault on two Indigenous women, O'Connor was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison. By affidavit, O'Connor admitted only to consensual relationships with the women, and that he had fathered a child that was placed for adoption. On appeal of the conviction, O'Connor's charges were dismissed. He resigned as bishop in 1991, but retained the honorific of most reverend.
St. Anne's Indian Residential School St. Anne's Indian Residential School was run by the OMI and the Grey Nuns of the Cross through Canadian Government funding from 1902 to 1976. Investigations into allegations of abuse at St. Anne's Residential School began in November 1992. Over seven years, Ontario Provincial Police interviewed approximately 700 survivors and witnesses, collecting approximately 900 statements about abuses at the school from 1941 to 1972. Physical abuse came in many different forms including poor living conditions and corporal punishments for students speaking in their native languages.
Kamloops Indian Residential School