'Deep ignorance': Calls for Manitoba trustee to resign sparked after comments about Indigenous people and reconciliation
CTV
A rural Manitoba school trustee is facing calls to resign over comments he made about Indigenous people and residential schools earlier this week.
A rural Manitoba school trustee is facing backlash, calls to resign and a provincial review over comments he made about Indigenous people and residential schools earlier this week.
The remarks came on Monday during a Mountain View School Division school board meeting in Dauphin, Man., during Trustee Paul Coffey’s presentation called “Racism/Anti Racism – Nice Until It Isn’t.”
During the presentation, Coffey said he would use the term “Indian” instead of other words like First Nations or Indigenous.
“Name changing is a form of erasure,” said Coffey. “It’s an obliteration brought on by colonization.”
He also brought up residential schools during the presentation, stating, “They were good.”
“They were essential for reading, writing and arithmetic,” he said, adding he believes everyone knew the schools were good and needed, including people living on reserves.
“It started out as a good thing and now it turned out not very good.”
