No space for residential school denial in government By: Tom Brodbeck Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Friday, May. 26, 2023

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/05/2023 (872 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s been well-known for some time in Manitoba’s political circles that former Tory justice minister Jim McCrae is a residential school denier.

He doesn’t deny residential schools existed, he refutes the clear historical evidence the “schools” were not schools at all, but instruments of the state and church to eradicate Indigenous culture, language and way of life.

McCrae has made that clear in many of his writings, nearly a dozen of which have been published online by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, a right-wing “think tank” that promotes writings critical of Canada’s reconciliation efforts with Indigenous people.

“For nearly 200 years, Indigenous parents sent their children to Indian residential schools to learn to read, write, compute, and learn other skills to prepare them for life in the 19th and 20th centuries and beyond,” McCrae wrote in a June 14, 2022, commentary titled: “Yes, it is indeed time to move on.”

McCrae argues residential schools, while not perfect, were designed to provide Indigenous children with an education to prepare them for the modern world.

A robust historical record, including official government reports, correspondence between government officials, parliamentary debates and first-hand testimony from residential school survivors disproves those claims.

Yet, residential school deniers continue to peddle falsehoods about them.

It was shocking to find out this week the Stefanson government appointed McCrae as a civilian member to the province’s masters appointment committee — a body that helps select people to work as judicial officers in the Court of King’s Bench.

McCrae (a Tory MLA from 1986 to 1999) was appointed through a cabinet order dated May 10. Such appointments are vetted by government officials and must be approved by the minister, in this case, Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen.

First Nations leaders decry patronage appointment

The minister claims he had no knowledge of McCrae’s commentaries, even though some of them date back several years.

It’s unlikely the Stefanson government was unaware of McCrae’s residential school denialism or his other inaccurate rants about Indigenous issues.

McCrae, who was justice minister when Manitoba’s Aboriginal Justice Inquiry report was released in 1991 (he now questions the independence of the commissioners who wrote it), has been very vocal about his views on residential schools. One would have to be living under a rock in the world of Manitoba politics not to be familiar with the falsehoods he’s been spreading.

McCrae’s appointment raises serious questions about the Stefanson government’s commitment to reconciliation. Those selected to sit on the masters appointment committee should have sound judgement and informed perspectives on Indigenous issues.

Appointing someone to the committee with such a distorted and inaccurate interpretation of Canada’s treatment of Indigenous people reveals a troubling mindset within the highest levels of the Tory government.

Appointing someone to the committee with such a distorted and inaccurate interpretation of Canada’s treatment of Indigenous people reveals a troubling mindset within the highest levels of the Tory government.

McCrae has since resigned his position, but not until a Free Press reporter contacted him about it Thursday. He would have likely remained in the position had his appointment not been exposed.

If McCrae’s patronage appointment was an oversight, an honest mistake by Goertzen and cabinet, they should say so by issuing a public apology. Premier Heather Stefanson and Goertzen should call a news conference and state they do not share McCrae’s views on residential schools.

They should reinforce the historical record is clear the institutions were created not to educate Indigenous children but to eradicate their language, culture and way of life.

Those historical facts were acknowledged by Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper in his 2010 apology on residential schools. His statement bears repeating and should be reflected upon by McCrae and anyone else who still believes residential schools were designed to educate Indigenous children.

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“Two primary objectives of the residential schools system were to remove and isolate children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures, and to assimilate them into the dominant culture,” said Harper.

“These objectives were based on the assumption Aboriginal cultures and spiritual beliefs were inferior and unequal. Indeed, some sought, as it was infamously said, ‘to kill the Indian in the child.’ Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm, and has no place in our country.”

We can’t “move on,” as McCrae demands, until we come to terms with Canada’s true history and take meaningful action to repair the damage those policies caused.

Appointing people to government positions who contradict those historical facts works counter to those goals.

tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca

Tom Brodbeck
Columnist

Tom Brodbeck is an award-winning author and columnist with over 30 years experience in print media. He joined the Free Press in 2019. Born and raised in Montreal, Tom graduated from the University of Manitoba in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and commerce. Read more about Tom.

Tom provides commentary and analysis on political and related issues at the municipal, provincial and federal level. His columns are built on research and coverage of local events. The Free Press’s editing team reviews Tom’s columns before they are 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.