Nenshi wants 2 Calgary schools renamed after B.C. gravesite discovered

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The Alberta government vowed late Monday to fund research into the undocumented deaths and burials of Indigenous children at residential schools, while Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi made an impassioned plea for people to fight for justice for the country’s Indigenous population.

Nenshi also called on the Calgary Board of Education and the Calgary Catholic School Board to change the names of Langevin School and Bishop Grandin High School — schools named after prominent figures in Canada’s residential school program.

The actions follow an announcement from the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation last week that the bodies of 215 children were discovered on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. Since then, organizations and individuals across Canada have come together in mourning, with many demanding further action be taken and ongoing changes made.

“The discovery of 215 lost children at the Kamloops Indian Residential School site heightens the need to take action,” Alberta’s Minister of Indigenous Relations Rick Wilson said in a news release.

“All of the families affected by this profound tragedy . . . need real progress from governments, institutions and from every one of us toward real reconciliation,” Wilson said in announcing the province’s funding. Details of that funding will be announced in the coming days, he added.

Also Monday, Nenshi led city council in a 215-second moment of silence to honour the children whose bodies were found last week and the other estimated 6,000-some children who are believed to have perished in residential schools from 1831 to 1996.

“It’s time for us to figure out ways to truly include Indigenous peoples in the prosperity of this nation,” he said.

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“It means the time for minimizing and excuses and rationalization . . . has long passed,” said Nenshi, also pointing out the time had past for comments such as “people like the premier’s hand-picked social studies curriculum advisor, spending the weekend tweeting, ‘Well they all died of TB anyway and other people died of TB.’”

In calling for the two schools to undergo name changes, Nenshi said: “The time for dithering is long past. The time for process is long past.

“Both of those boards should change the names of those schools in their next meeting.”

Bishop Vital-Justin Grandin was a Roman Catholic priest and bishop who is said to have brought the idea of increasing the size of the country’s residential school system, specifically in Western Canada, directly to Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald after seeing similar institutions in France.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada has said Grandin “led the campaign for residential schooling” as an act of “aggressive assimilation” to convert Indigenous children to Christianity and “civilize” them.

Where Grandin led the campaign for the residential schooling system, Hector-Louis Langevin was the architect.

In 2017, Calgary city council voted to rename the Langevin Bridge, which first opened in 1910, as the Reconciliation Bridge.

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Nenshi commended the federal government for setting up a national Indian Residential School crisis line and called on all Calgarians to know what role they fill in reconciliation.

“Donate to a worthy cause, educate yourself, teach your kids, talk to Indigenous peoples about their experiences and what they’re looking for in our community — get loud and get political.”

On Monday morning, Tsuut’ina First Nation Chief Roy Whitney expressed his “deepest sadness” about the discovery in Kamloops.

“The tragedy of their anonymous interment during a separation from their families, and the understandable worry that arises as to causes of death, are only slightly mitigated by the knowledge that they are now in peace with the Creator,” he said.

He added though it might be difficult to consider what comes next, it is up to the Roman Catholic Church and the federal government to release all records they have on residential schools so that a “thorough, intensive” investigation can begin.

“We remember these children, their families, and extended families. They will be in our prayers. We sincerely hope that this event will help to re-enforce in the national consciousness that residential schools were, very simply, inhumane.”

The Siksika Nation’s health services issued a statement Monday evening commending the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation’s work in bringing the tragedy to light.

“The work of healing must continue for all respective First Nations across Canada, including our home of Siksika First Nation. This is a time for us to come together, to support one another, to pray with and for one another,” it read.

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“To all of those who have been impacted, we hold you in our hearts. Together we are part of a resilient community of Indigenous brothers and sisters that remembers our history and those who have gone before, and we stand with you in claiming that every child matters.”

In a news conference Monday afternoon, provincial NDP leader Rachel Notley said she’d written Premier Jason Kenney with a proposal to engage with First Nations communities across the province on how they best see fit to move forward and to report back on progress by the fall.

“We must remember that one of the principles of reconciliation is to be guided by the wishes of survivors, their families, their communities,” she said. “We must be mindful of the trauma already endured through the truth and reconciliation commission process but where there is a desire to investigate these sites, the government must stand ready with the resources for those to take place.”

Krista White with the Aboriginal Friendship Centre of Calgary said the discovery of 215 children’s bodies in B.C. has created a “wildfire” effect that will hopefully encourage more people to tell their stories and even more people to listen.

“This has really re-traumatized especially residential school survivors and their families and we’ve come a long way, but this can cause a change in perspective. . . This is not going to be swept under the carpet anymore,” she said.

White said cultural, emotional and spiritual supports, like those offered by the Friendship Centre, will be vital in the coming days for the city’s Indigenous community when people feel overwhelmed or need to share.

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“It’s going to take a very long time for our people to heal, including from the intergenerational effects that are still being felt today, and it’s our people that are going to be able to fix this, but with the support of non-Indigenous people,” she said. “And the only way people can really heal on our journey is by going back into our cultures, learning our languages, going back into our spirituality, our traditions.”

The centre offers a multitude of traditional cultural events, including outings to sweat lodges, and welcomes everyone interested in learning more about Indigenous culture and history in the region and across Canada.

The Alberta Federation of Labour joined in the demand of some Indigenous groups to search for graves at the sites of former residential schools. It also called for the creation of a national day of mourning to remember the victims of the system, for the removal of names of architects of the system from schools and public buildings, and for an inquiry into the current child welfare system which “continues to separate Indigenous children from their families and their culture.”

“What happened in those facilities was nothing short of cultural genocide,” AFL president Gil McGowan said in a release. “We need to face what happened in our past and what is continuing to happen today. We can start by acknowledging that Kamloops was not an isolated case. There’s no doubt that there are many other graves, including here in Alberta. We need to find these kids and treat them with the dignity they were denied in life.”

McGowan added people like Bishop Vital-Justin Grandin “created an evil, barbaric and genocidal system” and can no longer be remembered above the children and families they “inflicted an unspeakable trauma on.”

ocondon@postmedia.com

Twitter: @oliviacondon