‘Greatest honour' representing Manitoba
'It was a very bittersweet, but solemn and beautiful day. He was so deeply loved,' Osler said by phone Sunday, speaking slowly and, at times, overwhelmed with emotion.
'It was truly the greatest honour to be able to represent Manitobans and Canada at the funeral of such an impactful pope who really embodied humility, compassion and love for all of us.'
SUPPLIED
Manitoba Métis Federation president David Chartrand waits in line at the Vatican to pay his final respects to the pope.
Osler was among a delegation of Canadian officials and Indigenous leaders who travelled to pay their final respects to the late pontiff, who died of a stroke and heart failure Aug. 21 at age 88.
Osler returned to Canada on Sunday, and said she was 'still processing' the experience when she spoke with the Free Press.
Several notable Manitobans were among the mourners, including Manitoba Métis Federation president David Chartrand, Assembly of First Nations Grand Chief Cindy Woodhouse and Phil Fontaine, who is a former head of both the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and AFN.
Senate speaker Raymonde Gagné, who is also from Manitoba, made the trip, as did Gov. Gen. Mary Simon, Osler said.
Osler, who did not have an opportunity to meet Pope Francis before his death, said the roughly 90-minute ceremony reflected the humility that was a trademark of his 12-year papacy. He was buried in a plain wooden casket, and with simplified funeral rights, she said.
According to Vatican estimates, some 250,000 people attended the funeral in St. Peter's Square while 150,000 others lined the motorcade route that stretched about six kilometres through downtown Rome.
Osler said the pontiff will be remembered for his dedication to building bridges and extending compassion to vulnerable and marginalized people.
'I think Manitobans loved Pope Francis, and not just Catholics,' Osler said, referencing the pope's 2022 visit to Canada, during which he apologized for harms the Catholic Church inflicted through the residential school system.
SUPPLIED
MMF president David Chartrand met Pope Francis as part of an Indigenous delegation at the Vatican in 2022.
About 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend residential schools, more than 60 per cent of which were run by the Catholic Church.
Francis met with Indigenous people who survived the schools and listened to their stories.
'His recognition of the ongoing trauma was powerful, not just for First Nations, Indigenous and Métis people who experienced abuse. I think, as Manitobans, we need to offer all of our deepest condolences and (recognize) his impact,' Osler said.
Chartrand was part of a 50-person Indigenous delegation that went to the Vatican in 2022 and encouraged the pope to come to Canada.
Francis demonstrated respect to the group, shaking each person's hand despite concerns over the then-ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the delegation were moved to tears by the gesture, Chartrand said.
When the pope later arrived in Canada, Chartrand remembered feeling 'the healing will truly progress and begin now with his personal attendance,' he said.
The Métis president waited in line for more than three hours Friday to view the pope's body and pay his final respects. He attended the funeral service the following day.
During Elections
Get campaign news, insight, analysis and commentary delivered to your inbox during Canada's 2025 election.
'To me, it was such an honour to be here and to show respect back to him, as he showed to us,' Chartrand said by phone from Rome on Sunday.
X
Manitoba Sen. Gigi Osler (far right) with a group of Canadian dignitaries and Catholic officials who made the trip to the Vatican for the funeral of Pope Francis.
'I saw people cry, I saw people hug, I saw young and old with their families… To me, he was the pope of hope.'
Chartrand carried a rosary in honour of his late mother — a devout Catholic — with him as he walked several kilometres through the press of bodies that formed the crowd, he said.
'Just to be there was priceless. Nobody can replace that. It's something I will cherish forever,' he said.
tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca
Tyler SearleReporter
Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press's city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic's creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.
Every piece of reporting Tyler produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Montreal Gazette
11 hours ago
- Montreal Gazette
Guy Vadeboncoeur, longtime Stewart Museum chief curator and director, has died
Guy Vadeboncoeur, the longtime chief curator and executive director of the Stewart Museum, has died. He was 76. The cause was cancer. The Stewart Museum was founded in 1955 by tobacco heir David M. Stewart and Liliane M. Stewart: It began as a private collection that David Stewart expanded into a collection of more than 30,000 artefacts, archival documents and rare books related to the European presence in New France and North America. It includes scientific instruments, one of Canada's best collections of firearms, European porcelain, Gobelin tapestry from France and objects used in everyday life in the 17 th and 18 th centuries. For years, the museum was on St-Helen's Island, in a former fortified arsenal built by the British in 1822 and used as a munitions depot. In 2013, it merged with the McCord Museum and, when the Stewart Museum closed permanently in 2021, its collection was absorbed by that of the McCord and the museum is now known as McCord Stewart Museum. For more than than half-century until his retirement in early 2014, Vadeboncoeur was closely associated with the many projects and endeavours of the Stewarts. He distinguished himself by integrating his knowledge of history with education and teaching, said Bruce Bolton, who served as longtime director of the museum before leaving to head the Macdonald-Stewart Foundation — an approach that earned him the recognition of peers in a the museum community. During his career, he twice served as president of the Société des Musées du Québec, from 1981 to 1982, and 2005 to 2007, and the Canadian Museums Association from 1983 to 1985, In 2004, he was elected Fellow of the association — a high honour in Canadian museum circles. He also participated in several juries for grants and scholarships in the museum field. 'We started working together in 1966 and stayed with the family. It was quite a collaboration. He was our human computer: He knew all the objects in the museum and when we acquired them,' Bolton said. 'His background in history and education — his PhD was in education for museums — enabled him to inspire so many people in how to bring history alive. Our intent at the Stewart Museum was to hire young people who showed the potential to be great museologists and we succeeded. We have so many people in the museum world who credit their beginnings to the Stewart Museum.' Vadeboncoeur organized, directed and supervised about 90 temporary and travelling museum exhibitions in addition to three re-imaginings of the permanent exhibition. He contributed to all the museum's publications related to its collections and directed the reorganization of the museum, including the permanent and temporary exhibition spaces, the offices, the workshops the reserves and libraries following work to bring the building up to code carried out between 2009 and 2011. Because of relationships he developed with universities with programs in museum studies, he represented the museum in Canada and beyond. He taught in the masters program in museum studies at the Université du Québec à Montréal, from where he earned a doctorate in museology. He welcomed dozens of interns at the Stewart from Quebec and elsewhere. Vadeboncoeur chaired the Museums Committee of the Commission franco-québécoise des lieux de mémoire communs and was a member of the ICOMAM Council: ICOMAM is an international committee of the International Council of Museums specializing in museums and collections of arms and military history. 'The Stewart Museum had a lot of international friends in the museum world and Guy was right there with them,' Bolton said. There were collaborations, for instance, with museums and other institutions in France. The museum oversaw the transformation of Manoir de Limoëlou in St-Malo, France, the house that once belonged to Jacques-Cartier, into a museum. David Stewart was able to purchase the collection of Abbé Nollet, a French professor who developed scientific demonstration instruments for the kings of France — and Vadeboncoeur was involved an exhibition shown at Versailles. The Stewart Museum collaborated in an exhibition with the Jewish Public Library held at the museum in 1990, Planets, Potions and Parchments, that featured a fragment from the Dead Sea Scrolls among more than 200 scientific manuscripts, books, maps, amulets, and magical texts brought together from collections in Europe, Canada, Israel, Great Britain and the United States. Vadeboncoeur is survived by his wife, Jocelyne, his children, Amélie and Alexandre, and their spouses, and his three grandchildren.
Winnipeg Free Press
a day ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Mexico City marks 700 years since its founding by Indigenous people
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico City is marking the 700th anniversary of its founding with a series of public events on Saturday, including artistic performances honoring the city's Indigenous origins. Artists in Indigenous clothing reenacted the founding of the Aztec capital in front of the country's top officials in Mexico City's main square. Later, hundreds of dancers dressed in traditional clothing, feather headdresses, drums, and ankle rattles made of seeds performed sacred dances meant to connect with nature. The anniversary commemorates the establishment of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Mexica, a group also known as the Aztecs, who settled in the Valley of Mexico in 1325. As recorded by early Spanish chroniclers, Mexica elders told of a divine sign from their patron god Huitzilopochtli: an eagle on a cactus, signaling where to settle. That place became Tenochtitlan, the center of Aztec civilization and the site of today's Mexico City. That symbol was later recorded in the Codex Mendoza, which contained historical accounts of the Aztec empire. It became central to Mexican identity and appears today on the national flag. 'Mexico was not born with the arrival of the Spanish; Mexico was born much earlier with the great civilizations,' said President Claudia Sheinbaum in a speech in which she urged the eradication of the racism that still persists in the country. Tenochtitlan began as a village on an island in a lake ringed by volcanic peaks. But historians say many other details that have come down in history are based heavily on legend, and that the exact founding date is unknown. By the time the Spanish arrived in the 16th century, they were awed by a city filled with palaces, bridges, canals and bustling trade, according to Spanish chronicler and conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo. Historian Miguel Pastrana of the National Autonomous University of Mexico's Historic Investigations Institute, an expert on Tenochtitlan, said the weekend's festivities are 'political and civic' and do not reflect the latest historical research. The historical record describes the Mexica as a people who migrated from a place called Aztlan, supposedly an island whose exact location remains unknown. They knew how to fish, gather aquatic plants and hunt birds, as well as build dams, and they tried to settle in several places before arriving in the Valley of Mexico. The main island in the lake was already populated by the Tepaneca people, but they allowed the Mexica to settle there in exchange for tribute payments and other services, Pastrana said. Little by little, the Mexica's power grew. They were strong warriors and commercially prosperous, and they were effective at making alliances with other peoples. Tenochtitlan became a great city at the center of an empire until the Spanish conquered it in 1521.
Edmonton Journal
a day ago
- Edmonton Journal
'Gizmo', 'Satan,' and 'McLovin': Inside the changing world of pilot calls signs at CFB Cold Lake
As far back as the Second World War, Canadian pilots have used call signs to identify themselves to colleagues in the air and on the ground. Article content Such short-hand monikers are used in official and unofficial communications as well as by Canada's allies, and have appeared in pop culture through films like Top Gun. Article content Article content The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) says call signs serve as more than identification markers, and reflect both generations of aviation heritage as well as the contemporary pilots who assign the nicknames to their peers. Article content Article content While once considered to be permanent, call signs and the policies that govern them have been updated in recent years amid controversy over some individual nicknames and the process by which they were assigned. Article content Article content Those concerns prompted an overhaul of standards around call signs and the process used to choose them, according to over 200 pages of records acquired by Postmedia via several access to information requests that produced records primarily from CFB Cold Lake in Alberta but also to other bases. Article content 'While the RCAF continues to value tradition and camaraderie, we recognize that certain call signs previously considered acceptable may no longer reflect the evolving culture of the organization,' reads a statement to Postmedia from Maj. Marie-Eve Bilodeau with the Canadian Armed Forces. Article content 'Our approach remains flexible, allowing the fighter force culture to evolve alongside broader societal expectations.' Article content Article content The documents list close to 100 different call signs, and while the origins of many of those are difficult to determine many are apparent attempts at humour. Article content Call signs referencing first or last names were common, including one pilot with the surname Chu who was given the call sign 'Pica' in reference to the Pokemon character. Article content Entertainment was a popular source of inspiration for call signs including 'Bollywood,' 'Jar Jar,' 'Gizmo,' 'Footloose,' and 'McLovin' in apparent reference to the 2007 film Superbad. Article content 'Call signs, much like nicknames between good friends, are intended to maintain tradition and contribute to esprit de corps,' Bilodeau stated. Article content Some call signs were acronyms, including 'POG' in reference to TSN's Play of the Game highlight segment, 'RIC' referring to an officer who rides (his motorcycle) in crocs, and 'DATA' for a pilot whose colleagues apparently believe doesn't always think ahead.
