Store drops ‘Wild West’ themed toy

WINNIPEG— Michaels, the arts and crafts supply chain store, is removing a toy depicting cowboys and Indigenous people from its shelves after a Winnipeg mother complained.

Erin Vandale, an early childhood educator and mother of four, went to a Michaels outlet in Winnipeg about two weeks ago to look for figurines for her child’s school project.

She stumbled across a toy called “Wild West,” a 12-piece set of miniature figurines depicting cowboys, pioneers and what the box labelled as “American Indians” from the 1880s, which included a cowboy with a gun and an Indigenous man with a bow and arrow.

Despite a complaint from Vandale, the toy was still on the store’s website a week later. But her attempt to post a negative review was met with a quick notice from Michaels telling her it did not meet their guidelines.

The chain was approached by CTV News on Monday morning and, by late afternoon, a company representative told the media outlet that the toy would be removed from store shelves across Canada.

Michaels says in a statement that it values all cultures and the product was not intended to be disrespectful.

“We’re taking colonial actions, things that actually happened in Canada that were horrible, and we’re giving them to children to reproduce them as a play,” said Vandale, who is non-Indigenous and whose husband and children are Métis. “I don’t want to see my children’s culture or my husband’s culture represented in that way in a store like Michaels.”

Vandale’s review read, “I take issue with the kind of play this toy will promote. The relationships between settlers and First Nations peoples were fraught with tension and horrible actions. I would really like to see this toy taken off the shelves.”

Vandale said she wasn’t trying to be inflammatory. “I was just coming from a really honest place and I think I should be able to write that.”