“It is difficult to capture the youthful perspective from all over the nation, but I will try to bring what I know and my experiences to our one-hour meeting with the Pope on Thursday,” he told CTV “Your Morning” on Monday.
A member of Fort Nelson First Nation in British Columbia, Behn-Tsakoza is one of two youth representatives taking part in a series of debates between Indigenous delegates and the pope this week.
After meetings scheduled for December were postponed due to concerns about the then-emerging Omicron variant of COVID-19, indigenous delegates held the first of a series of meetings with the Pope on Monday to discuss reconciliation with First Nations communities. and the Inuit in Canada.
Thirty-two indigenous elders, leaders, survivors and young people attend the meetings at the Vatican, organized by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, which also covers travel expenses.  A handful of bishops are also present.
Many call on the Pope not only to travel to Canada, but also to apologize for the role of the Catholic Church in the school housing system.
It comes as hundreds of insignificant graves in former school dwellings were discovered last year.
More insignificant tombs remain, with Keeseekoose First Nation in Saskatchewan announcing just last month that it had discovered more than 50 at two former Catholic-run sites.
An estimated 150,000 indigenous children attended the home school system, mostly by force, from the late 1800s to 1996. The Catholic Church ran more than 60 percent of the schools.
The schools, described as a form of “cultural genocide,” were an attempt to assimilate indigenous peoples with state support, with many children being physically and sexually abused.
Ben-Chakoza says an apology from the Pope would be one of the best results of these meetings.
“But I hope Pope Francis will change his mind and take a different view of Indigenous people in Canada from the discussions we have,” he said.
One of her biggest demands from the Pope would also be to pressure the Canadian government to renounce the Doctrine of Discovery, official statements issued in 1400 by the then Pope, which stated that any land not inhabited by Christians could be discovered and claimed.
“If we really want to move forward and restore sovereignty to the indigenous peoples, it starts with that,” Ben-Chakoza said.
Pope Francis is expected to announce on Friday his commitment to a trip to Canada, where he will apologize for the role of the church in residential schools.
Prime Minister Justin Trinto has asked the pope to apologize in 2017. However, the church issued a letter the following year saying the pope would not hand over one.


METIS, INUIT REPRESENTATIVES MEET WITH THE POPE 
After a meeting with Metis representatives, Metis National Council President Cassidy Caron said Pope Francis had reiterated “truth, justice and healing”, which he received as a personal commitment from him to find justice.
Angie Crerar, 85, of the Grande Prairie in Alta, said she felt really surprised to speak to the Pope, whom she described as polite and receptive.
“They did not break us,” Krarar said of the boarding schools.  “We are still here and we intend to live here forever.”
Nathan Obed, president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, an organization representing 65,000 Inuit in Canada, said there was a genuine sense of openness and kindness on display at the Inuit delegation.
“We continue to seek lasting respect and the right to self-determination, and the recognition of this right, from institutions that have harmed us,” he said.
“We are here at the moment and we are looking forward to this new path.”
Representatives of the First Nation are scheduled to meet with the Pope on Thursday.
Many demanded that the school archives be made public.  The archives are kept in dioceses in Canada and in archives in Rome.  The Vatican is also believed to have a collection of indigenous artifacts.
Although church officials say there are no believed files in the Vatican itself, Cindy Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada, told the CTV News Channel on Monday that she suspected there were in fact files.
Eventually, she seeks to hear how the church plans to reform itself.
“The best apology is the change in behavior and I’m not sure I have seen it from the Catholic Church at this point,” he said.
Niigaan Sinclair, an associate professor in the Department of Maternal Studies at the University of Manitoba, said the files should have been made available “yesterday”.
Also speaking on the CTV News Channel on Monday, Sinclair praised the bravery of school survivors who share their stories with the Pope, saying this is the first step in a long process.
Referring to a smaller delegation in Rome in 2009, during which Pope Benedict XVI expressed “regret” for the mistreatment of school survivors in homes, but did not apologize, Sinclair says that “the days for its protection privacy are over. “
“There are never, or can never be, arguments that schools meant well when there were insignificant graves and child deaths in these institutions, and so we are now,” he said.
With files from CTV News, The Canadian Press and Reuters