Kettle and Stony Point elder to travel to Rome to meet with Pope Francis to talk about residential school abuse

Cathy Dobson/Local Journalism Initiative

Seventy years after suffering abuse at a residential school in Brantford, Kettle and Stony Point’s Marlene Cloud is invited to meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican and intends to ask for an apology.

If she gets one, she will be the first residential school survivor from Ontario to receive an apology in-person from the Pope ahead of his planned visit to Canada next year.

“We were abused and robbed of our childhood,” said the 80 year-old Cloud. “Why wouldn’t he apologize?”

She is one of 13 Canadian delegates selected by The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) to meet with Pope Francis on Dec. 20. The trip to speak with the Holy Father is described by the AFN as the next step in completing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Call to Action #58, which calls on the Pope to issue an apology to survivors. 

Amid a growing number of calls for a papal apology for the Catholic Church’s role in the notorious residential schools, the Pope agreed to meet with three groups of Indigenous survivors – First Nations, Metis and Inuit.  Cloud will represent First Nations from Ontario.

“I found out about a month ago and said to myself, that can’t be true,” she said.  “I am scared to go because I’ve never been in a plane but I am okay meeting the Pope.  It’s overwhelming but it’s also an honour.”

She was only six years old in 1947 when she and five siblings were forced to leave their home at Kettle and Stony Point. 

“We had no choice and after a few years, it felt like being in jail,” said Cloud.  “The people who were supposed to look after us, carried around big straps and just whacked us all the time.”

She remembers feeling the strap across her back when she broke a rule and opened a window at the school.  

“This really happened. I was only six years old. We’d get strapped for being too loud and for using our native language. That was the biggest thing.” 

Cloud stayed at the Mohawk Institute for six years and was allowed only brief summer visits back home.  

During their time at the residential school, her oldest sister Edna died of tuberculosis.  

When Cloud finally returned to Kettle and Stony Point, she too had TB and had to stay at a London sanatorium for two more years, not returning home permanently until she was 14.  By that time, she was unable to speak her native tongue.

“At the school, we ate oatmeal from a big pot every single day and we called it mush.  That’s why the school was called Mush Hole.

“I want an apology because we should not have been treated like that,” Cloud said.  “They called us little heathens. We were only children.”

Kettle and Stony Point Chief Jason Henry said he is proud that Cloud is meeting the Pope and hopes it will be healing for her.

Cloud was the lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit initiated 20 years ago (Cloud v Canada) that sought damages from the Diocese of Huron, the Missionary Society that ran the Mohawk Institute from 1922 to 1969, and the Canadian government.

Cloud said the plaintiffs won but only received about $10,000 each.  

“Marlene’s a strong voice and an example of how we can stand up and overcome generational traumas from the schools,” said Chief Henry in a recorded community update. 

He said Cloud’s trip to the Vatican is good news and “will bring healing, not only to Marlene and her family, but help bring healing to our community and other indigenous survivors across Ontario and Canada.” 

Cloud’s daughters, Joanna Cloud and Deanna Bressette of Kettle and Stony Point, will accompany their mother in December.

“They’re searching the grounds at Mohawk Institute right now for children’s unmarked graves,” said Bressette.  

“My mom had friends that went missing and she was told they just ran away.  I think an apology is a long time coming.”

Watch Chief Jason Henry’s statement on Cloud’s audience with Pope Francis.

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