Politics
Indigenous groups call on Pope Leo to return thousands of Vatican artifacts TenX News
The Vatican Museums are among the world’s most popular, featuring vast art collections, including masterpieces by Michelangelo and Raphael, and drawing more than six million visitors every year.
But one exhibit in Vatican City is garnering attention for the wrong reasons.
The Vatican’s Anima Mundi Ethnological Museum holds thousands of Indigenous artifacts that were taken from communities across Canada by Catholic missionaries a century ago. Indigenous Peoples have long called for the artifacts to be repatriated, and in 2022, Pope Francis pledged to finally return them to Canada.
But following his death in April and the election of Pope Leo XIV, Indigenous leaders now worry Pope Francis’s promise may die with him.
“It could just be swept under the rug,” said Gloria Bell, a Canadian art historian, author and assistant professor at McGill University, who has Metis ancestry. “These belongings were stolen from Indigenous communities.”
Indigenous wood carvings on display at the Vatican’s Anima Mundi Ethnological Museum.
Global News
In 1924, Pope Pius XI called on Catholic missionaries around the world to collect Indigenous artifacts and bring them to the Vatican. The following year, the artifacts were put on display as part of the Vatican’s Missionary Exhibition, a landmark event that promoted residential schools and the Church’s missions across the globe, which attracted around one million pilgrims and visitors.
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The artifacts have since become a permanent collection at the Vatican. Global News toured the Amina Munda exhibit with Bell, who was on a visit to Rome to deliver lectures and expand her research on the artifacts’ origins.
The wide range of rare and priceless artifacts include a seal skin kayak and a wampum belt. Most of the items are currently held in storage, but dozens are on display. The Vatican exhibit calls them “gifts.”
“Calling everything a ‘gift’ is just a false narrative,” Bell said.
The Vatican Missionary Exhibition in 1925 promoted the Catholic Church’s residential schools and missions across the globe.
Provided by Gloria Bell
She pointed to an Australian Aboriginal activist, Anthony Martin Fernando, who held a one-man protest at St. Peter’s Square during the Vatican Missionary Exhibition in 1925, distributing thousands of leaflets that denounced how the artifacts had been stolen.
For his protest, Fernando was arrested and thrown in jail.
“Think of how everything was acquired by missionaries conducting their genocidal work in Indigenous communities in the 1920s, one of the most aggressive assimilative periods in the early 20th century, when these belongings were stolen from Indigenous communities,” Bell said.
“Indigenous children were held against their will in residential schools, and then their materials were put on display in this exhibition as ‘trophies’ of the pope.”
The Inuvialuit kayak, built a century ago in the Mackenzie Delta region, is being held in storage at the Vatican Museums.
Provided by Rosanne Casimir
In 2022, a delegation of Indigenous leaders from Canada were invited to Rome to meet Pope Francis and discuss reconciliation efforts. During their visit, as a goodwill gesture, Vatican officials privately showed the group some of the artifacts.
“Seeing these items that were made by the hands of, in many cases, women of our great-great-great grandmother’s generation, it was very moving, it was very profound,” said Victoria Purden, president of the Metis National Council, who was part of the delegation.
“You couldn’t help but feel that tug in your heart that those items should be back home. And they should be somewhere where our children and our grandchildren and our communities could enjoy them and contemplate them.”
In 2022, Pope Francis formally apologised to residential school survivors and promised the artifacts would be returned to their communities in Canada. Three years later, it’s unclear whether any progress has been made on the file.
“There’s a lot of rhetoric around truth and reconciliation, a lot of sort of performativity around it, but there hasn’t been any restitution to date,” Bell said.
Canadian Art Historian Gloria Bell and Global News reporter Jeff Semple on a tour of the Vatican’s Anima Mundi Ethnological Museum, which houses thousands of Indigenous artefacts.
Global News
The decision of whether to return the artifacts will now ultimately rest with the newly-elected Pope Leo XIV. Global News asked the Canadian Cardinals who participated in the Conclave that elected him whether they expect Pope Leo to fulfill his predecessor’s promise.
“The artifacts, the situation is something that I know is underway. There’s some reflection,” said Cardinal Gérald Lacroix, the Archbishop of Quebec. “Let’s let things unfold. But I’m sure (Pope Leo) will be interested in that.”
Purden, who returned to Vatican City for Pope Francis’s funeral and again raised the issue in a meeting with Vatican officials, said she remains optimistic that the artifacts will be returned to their communities.
“What an important symbol of reconciliation returning them will be when we manage to accomplish that,” she said.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Prime Minister Mark Carney says Qatar has committed to “significant” investments for Canada’s major building projects, calling it a “new chapter” in bilateral relations.
Carney made the announcement Sunday following his meeting with Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar.
The new measures will include the finalization of the Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement with Qatar, a deal that has seen years of stalled negotiations, Carney said.
“We are raising our relationship and our level of alignment by making friends with strategic partners,” Carney said. “To launch this new chapter in our relationship, I’m pleased to announce that Qatar has committed to make significant strategic investments in Canada’s nation-building projects.
“This capital will help the projects get built faster and supercharge our energy industries, while helping to create thousands of high-paying careers for Canadians.”
He also said the new agreement will help Canadian businesses to “more easily” expand operations in Qatar as well as attract investment from the country.
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According to a readout from the Prime Minister’s Office, air services between Canada and Qatar will also be expanded and a defence attache from Canada will be posted in the country.
According to the PMO, the two countries have agreed to launch negotiations on a new framework focused on military, security and defence matters, and expand investment opportunities on areas such as AI.
The PMO said the two leaders agreed to stay in touch and Carney noted Sunday he had invited the Emir to visit Canada later this year and attend the World Cup match between their two countries with him.
The plans with Qatar are Carney’s latest in a slew of agreements and travel to other countries to discuss trade deals since his election last year.
Asked about his ongoing efforts to meet with countries interested in trade, Carney told reporters that multilateral relationships are “being eroded.”
“The consequence of that is there is a reduction in freer trade, much more trade is tariff-based or otherwise restricted and there is virtually no, with all due respect to those who are trying, virtually no multilateral progress,” Carney said.
“Where there is progress, and where Canada and like-minded countries are looking to make progress, is through pluriality deals… which is multiple countries but not all countries.”
On Friday, Canada announced that 49,000 Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs) would soon be imported each year with a lowered 6.1 per cent tariff after Carney struck a deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Carney added on Sunday that Xi showed interest in expanding China’s trade relations with other countries, and that’s why Canada is establishing trade deals with other countries, such as Qatar.
“In this more uncertain and dangerous world, we’ve chosen to create greater stability, security and prosperity together,” Carney said.
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
World leaders are raising alarm after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose sweeping tariffs on European allies in an effort to pressure Denmark into negotiations over Greenland.
The move is sparking protests across the Arctic and sharp rebukes from Europe and Canada.
On Saturday, thousands of people marched through snow and ice in Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, chanting “Greenland is not for sale,” waving national flags.
Police described the demonstration as the largest they have ever seen in the city.
About 825 kilometres away, dozens of people rallied in Iqaluit, Nunavut, in a show of solidarity with Greenlanders.
“Greenland is owned by the Greenlandic people,” protesters chanted in Inuktut as they marched for an hour in freezing, windy conditions.
The protests came as Trump announced he would impose a 10 per cent import tax starting next month on goods from eight European countries.
These nations include Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland, because of their opposition to U.S. control of Greenland.
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The tariff would rise to 25 per cent on June 1 if no deal was reached for what Trump called the “Complete and Total purchase of Greenland.”
The president suggested the tariffs were leveraged to force talks over Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark that Trump says is vital to U.S. national security.
French President Emmanuel Macron said France stands firmly behind Greenland’s sovereignty and rejected the use of trade threats.
“Tariff threats are unacceptable and have no place in this context,” Macron wrote on social media, adding that Europeans would respond “in a united and coordinated manner” if the measures are confirmed.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Greenland’s future is for Greenlanders and Denmark to decide.
“Applying tariffs on allies for pursuing the collective security of NATO allies is completely wrong,” Starmer said, adding the issue would be raised directly with the U.S. administration.
Bob Rae, former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations, also chimed in on Trump’s announcement.
The tariff threat could mark a significant rupture between the U.S. and its NATO allies.
Greenland already hosts the U.S.-run Pituffik Space Base under a 1951 defence agreement with Denmark, supporting missile warning, missile defence and space surveillance for the U.S. and NATO.
“There is no sign of the Trump war of aggression against Greenland and Denmark letting up. It is not about ‘security’ any more than Venezuela was about ‘narco-terrorism.’ They are both about seizing control and plunder.”
He further added, “No country, including my own, Canada, is safe or secure.”
The tariff threat could mark a significant rupture between the U.S. and its NATO allies.
Trump is expected to face questions about the proposed tariffs and Greenland later this week.
He is scheduled to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, alongside several European leaders he has threatened with tariffs.
— With files from The Canadian Press
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Prime Minister Mark Carney arrived in Doha on Saturday as part of a push to attract foreign investment and deepen Canada’s economic partnerships beyond its traditional allies.
Carney’s visit comes on the heels of his visit to China and follows the recent presentation of a new federal investment budget aimed at positioning Canada as a stable, attractive destination for global capital.
In a news conference on Saturday, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said Canada is working to broaden its economic relationships as global trade patterns shift.
Qatar is viewed by Ottawa as a strategic partner, with officials pointing to the country’s significant investment capacity and growing influence on the global stage.
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“We need to reduce our dependence and increase our self-reliance to find a strategic path forward,” Champagne said.
“Engaging with the Middle East and China is necessary for Canada, just like our European partners have done,” Champagne added. “We buy more from the U.S.A. than anywhere else, but the trading climate right now is different.”
The conference highlighted Canada’s industrial capacity and trade advantages as key selling points for potential investors.
Champagne also said international engagement is critical as Canada works to raise its profile among global investors.
“We are one of the G7s with very big industries. We build cars, planes, ships, we have an abundance of energy, and we are the only one with free trade with all G7,” Champagne said. “With the way the world is changing, you better diversify, supply chain is changing and we need to adapt.”
Prime Minister Carney is expected to meet with senior Qatari officials, including Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, as well as representatives of the Qatar Investment Authority.
His office says the talks will focus on expanding trade access and forging partnerships in artificial intelligence, infrastructure, energy and defence.
The visit comes amid heightened geopolitical tensions in the region, though officials say the schedule remains unchanged.
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Qatar to invest in Canada’s major building projects, Carney says – National TenX News
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