Guest: Brandi Morin, freelance journalist

Pope Francis is in Canada this week on a pilgrimage of penance, meeting the survivors of the residential school system in which the Catholic Church played a major role — a forced assimilation of Indigenous peoples that destroyed families, cultures and created a legacy of trauma. Brandi Morin, an award-winning French, Cree, Iroquois journalist from Treaty 6, has been bearing witness as her own life is intertwined with the brutal history of the schools. We caught up with her to try to understand this moment and discuss what it will take for it to truly mean something.

The Indian Residential School Crisis Line is available 24 hours a day for anyone experiencing pain or distress as a result of a residential school experience. Support is available at 1-866-925-4419.

This episode was produced by Saba Eitizaz, Alexis Green and Matthew Hearn