In August 1958, when he was 11 years old, Irniq was abducted from his family’s home in Naujaat (then called Repulse Bay) on the shores of Hudson Bay and forced to attend a residential school in Chesterfield Inlet. Like many other indigenous students, he endured terrible abuse. Six decades later, he plans to ask the Pope, in person, to send one of their alleged abusers, Father Johannes Rivoire, to Canada so he can finally face justice. “This monster must not be allowed to get away with what he did to the Inuit children,” Irniq said. Elder Piita Irniq, center, holds a picture of Fr. Johannes Rivoire, who is wanted in Canada for child abuse in Nunavut but now lives in France. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang. Rivoire, a French Oblate priest, began working in Nunavut in the 1960s before returning to France in 1993. A few years later, the RCMP issued a warrant for his arrest on multiple charges of sexual abuse. Story continues below ad But France refuses to extradite its citizens to face charges abroad, so Rivoire remains free. He is now in his 90s and reportedly lives in a nursing home in Lyon. French Oblate priest Johannes Rivoire is accused of sexually assaulting children in Nunavut during the 1960s and 1970s. Charity Criminal charges against Rivoire were dropped in 2017 after the Attorney General of Canada concluded there was no longer a reasonable prospect of conviction. But in March, Nunavut RCMP announced they had received a new complaint about sexual assaults that allegedly occurred in the 1970s, and officers renewed their arrest warrant. Ottawa said Wednesday it had asked France to extradite Rivoire to Canada. Ottawa has asked France to extradite Johannes Rivoire to Canada to face sexual assault charges. He is now in his 90s and reportedly lives in Lyon. “I hope the Pope can appeal to the French government to say, look, he needs to be tried,” said school survivor Jack Anawak. In an interview near his home in Iqaluit, he told Global News that if France doesn’t extradite Rivoire to Canada, then “the next best thing would be to at least try him in France.” Trending Stories
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Story continues below ad “They still accuse people who participated in the Holocaust. They’re over 90, some are over 100. You’re still charging them, you know, so it’s the same thing.” Residential school survivor Jack Anawak on a boat near his home in Iqaluit in July 2022. Jeff Semple/World News The 71-year-old was just nine years old when he was taken from his home in Naujaat and forced to attend a residential school in Chesterfield Inlet. “I was one of those who were sexually abused. And it took about 30 years for that fact to be recognized,” he said. Anawak later became an MP, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, and an architect of Nunavut’s first public government. But one of his proudest moments was in the early 1990s, when he became one of the first to speak publicly about sexual abuse by Catholic priests at his former school. Story continues below ad “There was quite a bit of opposition to it. But we persisted and persisted and the more we pushed it, the more widely known it became.” Three decades later, Anawak welcomes the Pope to his remote northern city. The pontiff’s visit to Iqaluit was scheduled to last just three hours, but survivors said they planned to make every moment count. The Pope will be greeted by school survivors, drumming and throat singing – a celebration of the culture the church tried to destroy. “We wanted to show that even though there was an attempt to take away our language and culture, we tried to thrive,” survivor Alexina Kublu said. At the ceremony, they will light a traditional Qulliq lamp in memory of Kublu’s mother, who she remembers standing on the shore near their home outside Igloolik, watching her children boat away. An undated photo of Alexina Kublu’s mother, whose five children were taken from her and forced to attend residential schools. Submitted “And he just stood there for the longest time, looking away,” Kublu recalled. “And so I said, when they started talking about school and how hard it was for themselves as kids, I said that was really hard on our mothers as well as our fathers.” Story continues below ad For the church’s role in these atrocities, the Pope was expected to apologize in person. But survivors said his actions in the Rivoire case will speak louder. Survivors and school friends Peter Irniq, Jack Anawak and the late Marius Tungilik. Submitted On Friday, both Irniq and Anawak will remember their late friend and fellow school survivor Marius Tungilik. Tungilik also attended Sir Joseph Bernier’s Federal Day School and was allegedly abused by Rivoire. He suffered severe trauma and in 2012, at the age of 55, he died by suicide. “I made a promise to Marius one day that I would do everything I could to help get Rivoire back to Canada,” Irniq said. “And that’s what I’ve done all these years, to make sure that his victims have to start seeing healing and reconciliation for what was done to them by Rivoire when they were young children.” © 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
