Métis want to retain colonial names as reminders

WINNIPEG — The Manitoba Métis Federation says it’s not supporting a petition to change Winnipeg streets and schools named after a 19th-century British military general who led the suppression of the Red River Resistance.

Federation president David Chartrand said Garnet Joseph Wolseley caused great harm to Métis and other Indigenous people in the 1800s.

After a two-day meeting on the issue, Chartrand said the federation’s cabinet decided the names of those who harmed the Metis ancestors should stay in place. He said the names ensure their destructive legacies are not forgotten or repeated.

A petition is calling for the renaming of Wolseley Avenue, Lord Wolseley School and Wolseley School, as monuments to other colonial leaders and slave traders are being removed around the world.

The petition calls for the locations to be renamed in honour of Métis people who resisted Wolseley’s invasion.

“General Garnet Wolseley was the military leader of Prime Minister John A. Macdonald’s genocidal scheme of white ‘armed emigration’ to the North West,” the petition says.

Wolseley brought troops to Manitoba to stop Louis Riel’s provisional government. It led to the harassment and killings of Métis people. The petition also points to Wolseley’s role in the British colonial legacy throughout the world, including South Africa, Egypt and India.

The federation said Thursday it decided that controversial names and monuments can create good teaching moments.