Changing school’s name carries risk of erasing colonist’s racist history, MMF warns trustees

The Manitoba Métis Federation made a case Monday against trustees renaming a city school honouring a military leader who has gained infamy in recent years.

Wolseley School is the latest subject of debate over educational sites named after historical figures whose actions do not align with 21st-century values.

Col. Garnet Wolseley (1833-1913) played a key role in the colonial crusade against Louis Riel and the Métis people who lived under his provisional government in the Red River Settlement.

“(He did) horrible things to our people, to our nation — murders, rapes, the reign of terror, burning homes down to the ground, chasing us away…. We need to make sure that the atrocities of people like Wolseley are never forgotten,” the MMF’s Will Goodon told a school board meeting.

The Winnipeg School Division has — at the request of the nursery-to-Grade 6 building’s parent council — spent more than a year collecting community feedback on the decorated commander’s legacy.

Senior administration announced recently that it was committed to change and began accepting new name suggestions.

Goodon, speaking on behalf of the national government of the Red River Métis, made a presentation to the superintendent’s team and board of trustees Monday challenging their decision.

The MMF housing minister was joined by the MMF education minister Joan Ledoux and a handful of other Métis supporters.

Goodon warned about racism in the form of denialism related to Canada’s historic treatment of Indigenous people.

“We need to fight hate with education,” he said.

Goodon noted MMF president David Chartrand’s concerns that renaming landmarks — streets, statues or otherwise — can erase history.

If the school division cannot preserve Wolseley’s history via the school name, there needs to be another way to do so, he added.

The school’s online biography currently states that Wolseley led troops who were tasked with an 1870 expedition “to quell the Riel insurrection; it does not mention the accompanying bloodshed and the lasting impact on Métis people.

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Goodon suggested one option could be adopting a phrase in Michif — the Métis language, a blend of Cree and French — as the school name.

Board chair Kathy Heppner thanked Goodon for his input.

WSD initially asked community members to submit ideas that represented the neighbourhood and “connect to learning for students” online before April 8.

Suggestions for the facility at 511 Clifton St. “must avoid the names of people,” states a March 28 social media post about the initiative.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Maggie Macintosh
Education reporter

Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., she first reported for the Free Press in 2017. Read more about Maggie.

Funding for the Free Press education reporter comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative.

Every piece of reporting Maggie produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.