Residential school survivor says meeting Habs goalie Carey Price ‘really meant a lot’

WINNIPEG (CityNews) — An interaction with one of the National Hockey League’s best goaltenders has left a special impression on a former residential school survivor in Winnipeg.

While he’s usually known for stopping pucks on the ice, Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price took the time to meet Gerry Shingoose and showed a different side of himself. A photo of the meeting went viral on social media.

Price, a member of Ulkatcho First Nation in B.C., met with Shingoose prior to puck drop in Game 2 of NHL second-round playoff action between the Canadiens and Winnipeg Jets on Friday.

The encounter came in the wake of the discovery of the remains of 215 children at a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.

“He brought light to my matter for why I was there,” said Shingoose. “He’s so gentle and kind, and it was so good to see him.

“I told him I was a residential school survivor and then he shared his grandmother went to a residential school in Williams Lake, B.C. I felt connected there, a connection.”

Here at St. MARYS CATHEDRAL, WPG waiting for Archbishop Gagnon. SURVIVORS are seeking Justice. Then Carey Price, Montreal Canadians stops to talk with me Gramma Shingoose. He was gifted a Tobacco Tie and Orange ribbon ???????? pic.twitter.com/9baVO9Xjs5

— Gramma Shingoose (@LeeShingoose) June 4, 2021

Shingoose was sitting outside St. Mary’s Cathedral — just a block away from Bell MTS Place where the hockey game was played — when Price approached her.

“It really meant a lot that he took the time to talk with me and hear my message,” Shingoose said. “We offered him a tobacco tie and an orange ribbon so he can wear it and he accepted it.”

In turn, the Canadiens gifted Shingoose with a second-round warmup puck.

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READ MORE:

• Manitoba First Nations calling to search for unmarked grave sites at former residential schools
• Trudeau’s acknowledgment of Indigenous genocide could have legal impacts: experts
• ‘Convenient ignorance:’ Canadians’ knowledge of residential schools woefully lacking

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Shingoose was there to meet with Archbishop Richard Gagnon of the Archdiocese of Winnipeg.

“We were seeking criminal charges,” she said. “We did advise them that Canada, under federal law, when bodies are found, in this case children, someone should be held criminally responsible for it.”

When seeking justice and apologies, Shingoose says Archbishop Gagnon swayed the conversation.

“He blamed it on a certain Catholic group that was running that Catholic school,” she said. “We talked about apologies, and he says Pope Francis never apologized to Canada. We are also requesting that Pope Francis comes to Canada, on our grounds, because that is where the children were found.”

On Sunday, Pope Francis said he was “following with pain” the news out of Canada but did not offer an apology.

Shingoose says she was forced to attend a Catholic-run residential school in Saskatchewan from 1962 to 1971.

“I was taken from my family and really missed my family when I was in residential school, the loneliness was the hard part, but most of all, the hard part was emotional, physical, spiritual and sexual abuse that was done on myself and many other children.”

WATCH: Trudeau calls on Catholic Church to acknowledge role in residential schools (June 4, 2021)