Top aboriginal scholar steps down

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This article was published 28/08/2009 (6231 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One of Canada’s leading aboriginal scholars is leaving a top job at the University of Winnipeg after only one year.

Paul Chartrand is stepping down next Tuesday as U of W’s director of aboriginal governance.

His appointment in May of 2008 was announced with considerable fanfare. Chartrand called it a rare chance to come home and make "change that matters" for aboriginal people.

"The reasons for leaving are to do with family and health," Chartrand said Thursday. "I certainly had no problems with the program — it was wonderful.

"All the senior officials treated me very well," Chartrand said. "The vision of the university described by the president (Lloyd Axworthy) is still the right one."

U of W spokesman Dan Hurley said that Chartrand had made the school aware that he had health issues.

"We’re sorry to see him go. He brought gravitas," said Hurley.

Chartrand said he made his decision several months ago and discussed it with university officials, so they would have time to launch a search for his successor. A retired dean will be acting as interim director.

"They want to find a leading indigenous scholar — such people are rather rare, for historical reasons," Chartrand said.

Chartrand was a law professor at the University of Saskatchewan for six years before coming to U of W, and former commissioner on the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.

The 65-year-old Chartrand was born in St. Laurent. As director of aboriginal governance, Chartrand has overseen the new Masters of Arts degree in Aboriginal Governance, a first for Manitoba, as well as the ongoing Bachelor of Arts in Aboriginal Governance, which is offered as a joint program with Red River College.

Chartrand was one of the first aboriginal students to graduate from U of W, with a BA in 1972.

The Masters of Arts in Aboriginal Governance, which began last September, is designed to expand the knowledge and skills required to create effective leaders in aboriginal and treaty rights.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca