Manitoba promises review after school trustee’s comments on Indigenous people
— A school trustee’s comments on Indigenous people and residential schools have led to condemnation from many quarters and a review by the Manitoba government.
Paul Coffey, a trustee in the Mountain View School Division in western Manitoba, told a school board meeting on Monday that residential schools started as a good thing.
“They were essential for reading, writing, arithmetic, also enforcement of school attendance,” Coffey said in his halfhour presentation, which was posted online.
“It was all nice until its well-documented and openly expressed intention to use schools to assimilate, eradicate Indians’ languages, cultures and spiritual beliefs.”
Coffey said he would continue to call Indigenous people “Indians.” He said the term “white privilege” is racist and he questioned the extent of abuse at residential schools as laid out in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report in 2015.
“You have to start to wonder how authentic it is when there’s absolutely no good stories in Canada about residential schools. How is that possible?” he said.
Coffey said he has mixed Indigenous and European heritage. Attempts to reach him for comment were unsuccessful.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission spent years investigating and documenting the history and lasting harms of church-operated, governmentfunded residential schools that more than 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend. Thousands suffered emotional, physical and sexual abuse.
The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation says more than 4,000 children died.
The Southern Chiefs Organization, which represents dozens of First Nations communities in Manitoba, has called for Coffey to be removed from the board.
The Manitoba Teachers Society said Coffey’s comments were vitriolic, uninformed and harmful.
Manitoba Education Minister Nello Altomare said he is looking into the matter and is launching a governance review.