We failed God'. Obviously fearing that a single abject apology might not be taken seriously, Archbishop Peers and his colleagues repeated these sentiments on many later occasions. It was a great invitation to sue. As law professor Ian Hunter recently observed in the Toronto-based National Post newspaper, 'the Anglican Church is unique in Canadian legal history in apparently convicting itself from its own mouth and apologizing its way into a legally untenable position'. About 10,000 individual lawsuits have now been launched against those involved in the residential schools, with the numbers continually growing.
Some Anglican dioceses face damages claims totalling billions of dollars.
Commentators ridiculed this statement as sanctimonious humbug. Mark Steyn and Professor Hunter both interpreted it to mean that Archdeacon Boyle's only regrets were that some plaintiffs would die before collecting their loot, and that the plaintiffs could not be compensated for every one of the church's past misdeeds. But I think that the church's critics are being too harsh. There is something honourable about an organisation that is willing to accept the consequences of its self-assessed guilt and face its own impending bankruptcy with such calm. There is a lesson here for our own churches.