China News Agency, Toronto, May 17 (Reporter Yu Ruidong) The eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, will start a three-day visit to Canada on May 17.
Charles said reconciliation with Canada's Indigenous peoples about the dark history of the past needs to be better advanced.
The Charles and his wife's visit is part of a series of celebrations in Canada to mark the 70th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's accession to the throne.
The first stop of the itinerary is St. Johns, the capital of Newfoundland and Labrador. After that, they will visit the Ottawa region and the Northwest Territories, including a number of itineraries to communicate with Aboriginal people.
Speaking at the welcome ceremony in St. John's, Charles acknowledged that this part of Canada has been looked after by Aboriginal people for thousands of years.
He said new ways had to be found to "recognize, reconcile and try to do better in the face of the darker and more difficult aspects of the past".
Mary Simon, Canada's first Aboriginal Governor-General, said she looked forward to Charles listening to the stories of Canada's Aboriginal people and learning historical truths to promote healing, understanding and respect.
Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Canada in late July to advance reconciliation with Canada's First Nations over the history of boarding schools, the Holy See has announced.
Prior to this, three Canadian aboriginal delegations went to the Vatican for several meetings with the Pope from the end of March to the beginning of April, calling on the Holy See to take concrete actions to promote the Catholic Church to achieve reconciliation with Canada's aboriginal people on dark historical issues such as boarding schools.
Pope Francis issued a "historic" apology on April 1 for the role of the Catholic Church in Canada's Aboriginal boarding school system.
The three officially recognized aboriginal groups in Canada include the Indians (also known as First Nations), the Inuit, and the Métis who were born after the intermarriage of early European immigrants and Aboriginal people.
The head of the Métis National Council recently called on the British royal family to also apologize for the history of Canada's Aboriginal boarding schools.
As a Commonwealth of Nations, Canada's head of state is the Queen of England, but the Governor-General nominated by the Canadian Prime Minister and appointed by the Queen of England acts on his behalf.
According to a sample survey released in late April by the Angus Reid Institute, a Canadian polling agency, about 51% of Canadian respondents believed that Canada should no longer maintain a constitutional monarchy in the next few generations; Twenty-six percent said the status quo should be maintained.
While 55% of respondents were still in favour of maintaining a constitutional monarchy under the Queen, that dropped to 34% under the premise of "King Charles".
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