Reconciliation under fire in St. Clements

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/05/2022 (1381 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A sign marking a road renamed in the spirit of reconciliation in the Rural Municipality of St. Clements has been replaced after being damaged by gunfire.

The route was originally named Colonization Road before the RM and Brokenhead Ojibway First Nation leadership collaborated on changing it to Reconciliation Road last November.

The street sign — replaced on the weekend by St. Clements after the damage was brought to light via a Facebook post shared Friday by Chief Gordon Bluesky — had been riddled by what looks like shotgun blasts for at least several weeks until it was addressed.

“I 1,000 per cent took it as an act of racism, there’s no other way to describe it,” Bluesky told the Free Press Monday.

The sign’s vandalism “overshadows the intention” of a well-meaning initiative from the RM, Bluesky said.

“It’s just another slap in the eye or salt in the wound of an already bad relationship,” he said.

“I think our communities have always been in a position where we’ve wanted to work with Canadians, with Manitobans, with the municipalities and so on, but there’s always been this wall in between us for whatever reason, maybe it’s just racism, maybe it’s stereotypical views of our people.”

The RM council was made aware of the vandalism through the Facebook post Friday, and had the sign replaced by Saturday, chief administrative officer Deepak Joshi said.

“Once we were aware, we acted on it immediately.”

While he wouldn’t speak to what he thought might be the intention of the vandalism, Joshi said the municipality plans to take it to the RCMP and would get the police involved if there was any further destruction.

“We take this type of vandalism very seriously, and if necessary, we’ll contact the proper authorities,” Joshi said.

At the time of the name change, the sign was seen as a symbol of collaboration between the RM and Brokenhead.

The St. Clement council approached Brokenhead leadership about changing the name, which was finalized a year after Earl (Buddy) Prince, grandson of war hero Sgt. Tommy Prince, posted his concerns about the original name on social media. There’s some worry the sign may be vandalized again, Bluesky said.

“I really hope that the municipality feels that way, in terms of concern,” he said. “I really hope that the RCMP has concern about someone discharging a firearm just yards away from a home… There should be a concern more than just our First Nation.”

Bluesky commended the RM for quickly replacing the sign, but lamented the destruction of the original.

“The issue that I think is most relevant here is that even though we have this distaste for these signs and so on, we still, as a people, don’t go and shotgun blast them,” he said. “So to see that being done… is still very reflective of where we are in Canadian society. It’s unfortunate.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca