Advocates accuse government of rewriting history

WINNIPEG — Two Indigenous men have quit their positions on Manitoba economic development boards in the wake of controversial remarks by Premier Brian Pallister and a cabinet minister.

The resignations of Jamie Wilson and Darrell Brown form the latest chapter in the growing fallout from Pallister’s comments on Canadian history, which have drawn widespread criticism.

“As a former treaty commissioner for Manitoba and member of Opaskwayak Cree Nation, I cannot support this government’s rewriting of Canadian history,” Wilson wrote in a text message Sunday.

Brown had served on the government-appointed board of directors of the Rural Manitoba Economic Development Corporation, which provides support to businesses and communities in southern Manitoba.

Wilson was chairman of a similar agency, the Communities Economic Development Fund.

The resignations came roughly one week after Pallister criticized protesters who had toppled statues of Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria on the legislature grounds. Pallister said people who came to Canada, both before and after it was a country, came not to destroy anything but to build communities, churches and businesses.

His comments were criticized by Indigenous leaders as minimizing the harmful effects of colonialism.