Fort Richmond elementary school shedding racist lord’s name

Dalhousie School is undergoing a rebrand so it’s no longer affiliated with a Scottish soldier, lord and colonial leader who supported slavery.

The Pembina Trails School Division put a out a call this week for suggestions to rename the elementary building located at 262 Dalhousie Dr.

Its current namesake is George Ramsay, also known as Lord Dalhousie or the ninth Earl of Dalhousie — a title of nobility passed down in his prominent Scottish clan.

“Our whole slogan is, ‘Our differences make us strong,’” said Evi Klostermaier, acting principal of the kindergarten-to-Grade 5 school in Fort Richmond.

“The goal is to ensure our school name reflects the spirit of belonging, respect and pride and the diversity that’s in our community and in our building.”

Inspired by the recent renaming of nearby Prairie Sunrise School — previously named Ryerson School — the staff team set out last spring to investigate their building’s namesake.

What they learned — Dalhousie (1770-1838) was pro-slavery and held racist beliefs about Black people — was extremely troubling, Klostermaier said.

Teachers took their concerns to the board office in the fall and received approval to start an official renaming process involving all 440 students and their families.

“We have a lot of immigrant families within our community who didn’t know yet of Dalhousie.… We shared our reasoning for (change) and they were very open to it,” Klostermaier said.

Provincial census data shows more than half of all residents in the Fort Richmond constituency are visible minorities. Ten per cent of the population identifies as Black.

Halifax-based Dalhousie University is also named after the man who, then-lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia, founded the post-secondary institution in 1818.

The university established a team of researchers in 2016 to probe its founder’s relationship to slavery, race and anti-Black racism. The panel’s 132-page report details how Dalhousie cut rations for Black refugees and sought to deport them to their former slave masters.

The panel called on the school to issue an apology to the African Nova Scotia community. It did not recommend the campus be renamed.

Over the last five years there’s been a growing movement across the country to strip public schools of names honouring historical figures whose beliefs and actions caused harm to Indigenous people and other marginalized populations.

The 2021 announcement that ground-penetrating radar surveys revealed approximately 200 potential unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school site in Kamloops ignited public outrage and discussion about Canadian monuments.

Manitoba school trustees have since approved the renaming of Cecil Rhodes School (now Keewatin Prairie Community School) and Wolseley School (Little Bluestem School), among others.

Pembina Trails requires its buildings be renamed after the community they’re located in, a symbol of their unique programming or as a tribute to inclusivity, reconciliation and respect for human rights and diversity.

Division rules state names should be chosen “with a view towards staying relevant and appropriate for the future.”

The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation’s education director said she’s on board with renaming institutions, but she has two conditions.

Kaila Johnston said it’s important the affected community is on board and the history of an original namesake is acknowledged in some shape or form.

“Context is very important,” Johnston said. “Otherwise, it can be lost to history.”

As part of their renaming process, Dalhousie School teachers asked their students to reflect on where their names came from and invited an elder to speak about Indigenous naming practices.

The school is compiling a time capsule of yearbooks and other historical artefacts representing the school since its inception in 1970.

The board of trustees is expected to approve a new name before the end of the school year. Suggestions are being collected in an online survey that closes Wednesday.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca