“This is a loophole. It may be legal but unethical.”

One of the Catholic Church’s commitments in the landmark 2005 India Boarding School Placement Agreement was to “do its best” to raise $25 million for survivors.

Ten years later, of which more than 21 million U.S. dollars unpaid. All other churches participating in the settlement-the United Church, the Anglican Church and the Presbyterian Church-paid all their shares without incident.

Several years after the settlement, the federal government demanded payment from the church. Instead, the church’s legal team went to court and pointed out the “best effort” clause, saying that the church had done its best. On July 16, 2015, the judge agreed and exempted the church from its legal obligations.

In an interview, Poilièvre said he was disgusted by the church’s meager fundraising efforts and “immoral” legal methods. Get rid of it, in fact more than 290 million dollars Committed to the construction of cathedrals and churches During this period, the whole of Canada.

“It’s pathetic,” he said. “I think money should be spent on people first, then buildings and cathedrals.”

Poilièvre said he welcomes the announcement this week of five bishops of Saskatchewan as a local fundraiser for survivors-even if it is 16 years late. But he pointed out that dozens of bishops across Canada remained silent on money issues this week.

“As a Catholic church, we have a responsibility. We need a collective, corporate response,” Polièvre said. “We are complicit in the design, implementation and management of these schools with the government.”

The 85-year-old Poilièvre has witnessed the legacy of the boarding school and its devastating impact on indigenous families. In 1978, frustrated with the church and society’s treatment of indigenous people, he threw his white civil servant into the trash can and moved to Yellowknife. Subsequently, he worked for cooperative enterprises in more than 30 aboriginal communities.

“I want to learn, they taught me a lot,” Poilièvre said.

Six years later, he returned to Saskatoon and continued his work as a pastor, but insisted that everyone only call him by his first name. He has now worked with thousands of prisoners and former gang members for decades through his group STR8 UP.

“I am not an aboriginal, but to be honest, I agree with the aboriginal more than the church,” he said.

Poilièvre and others say that the structure of the Catholic Church is an important part of the problem.

They say that in many ways, the church is highly hierarchical and synchronized. The Vatican prescribes mass rituals, life rules and belief systems from top to bottom. Starting from the bottom, the Vatican receives income from various regions or parishes.

But when it comes to compensating boarding school survivors, making unmarked cemetery documents, revealing the name of the pastor of the abuser, or obtaining an apology from the Pope on Canadian territory, Poilièvre and others argue that the senior management suddenly denied all responsibility. Each parish is an independent legal and financial unit.

Thomas McMahon, the former chief legal counsel of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, said: “The Catholic Church is very deliberately organized in this way to avoid corporate responsibility.”

“The government can easily pass a law that says,’Yes, the Catholic Church, you are a legal corporate entity.’ But our politicians are too afraid of Catholic voters. They let the Catholic Church play this game.”

McMahon said the Catholic Church has hired “numerous” lawyers at every stage, from compensation to simple document requirements for survivors or TRC. He said that no other church group did this.

“Obviously, this is the strategy,” he said.

Michele Dillon, a professor at the University of New Hampshire, who has written four books on Catholicism, said that the church is in crisis.Dillon, McMahon and others say that the church has recently Abuse with Financial scandal Covering up, denying and breaking promises complicates the situation.

Dillon said: “The church is still trying to find ways to hold people accountable and compensate, which is of course regrettable.”

The Conference of Catholic Bishops of Canada (CCCB) declined an interview request. An official stated that they have no right to speak on behalf of individual bishops.

CBC News also asked the CCCB whether bishops outside of Saskatchewan had pledged to raise further funds for boarding school survivors. The official stated that asking questions to its members on behalf of an external organization “is beyond the scope of the CCCB’s responsibilities”.

Poilièvre described this reaction as typical and expressed his hope that this situation will change. He said that this change can begin with all Canadian bishops agreeing to allocate $21 million to survivors.

“It didn’t happen then, but it needs to happen now,” he said. “No effort. No commitment. No energy. Hope it is now.”