New Indigenous reconciliation minister delivers disastrous debut Lagimodiere claims he 'misspoke' about residential schools' good intentions minutes after swearing-in By: Dylan Robertson Posted: 12:22 PM CDT Thursday, Jul. 15, 2021 Last Modified: 9:24 PM CDT Thursday, Jul. 15, 2021 Updates

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Premier Brian Pallister’s attempt to quell a firestorm over Manitoba’s history with Indigenous people backfired Thursday, when the new minister he’d just appointed to steer reconciliation suggested residential schools were started with good intentions.

The comments came just moments into the job, prompting the Opposition leader to interrupt a press conference Thursday morning.

Now, Indigenous leaders are declining phone calls and demanding apologies.

“The residential school system was designed to take Indigenous children and give them the skills and abilities they would need to fit into society as it moved forward,” Selkirk MLA Alan Lagimodiere told reporters shortly after being sworn in as minister of Indigenous reconciliation and northern relations.

“At the time, they really thought that they were doing the right thing. I’m saddened by the fact that it took individuals so long to recognize that process wasn’t working.”

Lagimodiere, who is Métis, acknowledged that those running the schools forbade Indigenous children from practising their languages and cultures.

“They thought they were doing the right thing. In retrospect it’s easy to judge,” he said.

NDP Leader Wab Kinew, who is First Nations, interrupted the news conference, walking up to Lagimodiere to confront him.

“I cannot accept you saying what you just said about residential schools,” Kinew said, noting officials had stated they wanted to use the schools to replace all Indigenous language and culture with European ways of life.

“Any right-minded person at the time should have known and would have known — and many did know, and spoke up against it,” Kinew said.

"We’ll give you a chance, but you can’t be out here defending residential schools if you want to work with Indigenous communities."

Lagimodiere later tweeted that he “misspoke” in his 14 minutes at the podium, and he acknowledged the schools sought to “eradicate Indigenous culture,” but he did not offer an apology.

Former senator Murray Sinclair, who chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, was unimpressed.

“They are trying to unring the bell now,” Sinclair told the Free Press.

“It’s a terrible thing to say. He should never have said it, and we should never forget he said that.”

Kinew later told reporters that Lagimodiere might be among a cohort of Indigenous people who don’t know their history due to colonial education systems.

The Manitoba Metis Federation was less sympathetic, arguing any Métis citizen who lived in the North would know about the legacy of assimilationist policies.

“He’s raised in the North. There’s no way in hell this would be his position. He’d know the struggles of the Métis,” said MMF president David Chartrand.

“It’s unbelievable and unforgivable. It’s an insult to all of those who went to day schools, to residential school, and all of those who lost their rights.”

“It’s a terrible thing to say. He should never have said it, and we should never forget he said that.” – Former senator Murray Sinclair

Lagimodiere said Thursday that the Pallister government had gone “above and beyond” what the TRC demanded for reconciliation, and that he’d start his job by phoning each main Indigenous leader.

Chartrand said he’d decline that call.

“I’m not wasting an ounce of my energy for a minister that has no power and no jurisdiction and clearly is foolish enough to believe he does,” he said.

He further criticized Lagimodiere for not speaking out during the premier’s multiple spats with the MMF, including the federation’s difficulty in securing COVID-19 data and vaccines.

“It’s just heartbreaking to watch this happen in front of us, and for a Métis person to sell their soul, or sell their principles, just to have that title of minister,” Chartrand said.

“I’m saddened he’s allowed himself to be used by this premier.”

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs said Lagimodiere’s comments were racist, but is open to working with him; regional chiefs demanded an apology and called for cabinet ministers to learn more about the province’s history.

Thursday’s cabinet shuffle was an attempt to change the channel after a torrent of criticism that culminated in the resignation of Eileen Clarke from the Indigenous and northern relations cabinet portfolio.

Last week, Pallister had suggested the people who came to the place that became Canada meant only to build things up, not destroy anything.

The premier doubled down earlier this week, and on Thursday said his remarks about people coming here to build things up included Indigenous people.

“Thousands of years ago, people came here as newcomers,” Pallister said. “Indigenous people were the first Canadians. They were newcomers at that point in time.”

The premier said “subsequent newcomers” from Europe survived only with the help of Indigenous people, and that is a model for reconciliation.

University of Manitoba historian Sean Carleton said that plays into tropes that Indigenous people walked from Asia to Alaska, and are thus immigrants.

“It’s an attempt to delegitimize Indigenous people’s millennia on these lands, from time immemorial,” he said.

“I see it in chatrooms and right-wing blogs; I’m surprised the premier of the province, in a time when he’s trying to calm things down… is using these sort of dog-whistle claims.”

“It’s an attempt to delegitimize Indigenous people’s millennia on these lands, from time immemorial.” – Historian Sean Carleton

Brandon University political scientist Kelly Saunders contrasted those comments with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s contrite 2019 apology for disguising himself in blackface at a high school event in the 1980s. Trudeau said he’d learned since then, putting an end to the issue for many Canadians.

“When we’re backed into a corner and we know there’s no way out, most of us try to reach out, to self-reflect on our own actions and maybe learn from our mistakes and listen to others," Saunders said. "Then we try to move forward in a new fashion.

“There is that playbook, but unfortunately this premier seems unwilling or unable to do the right thing.”

In a tweet after the incident, the Progressive Conservative party caucus said Kinew had bullied Lagimodiere.

“The political showmanship of storming into someone else’s press conference to bully a minister who was sworn in only 10 minutes earlier does nothing to advance that reconciliation,” reads the tweet, which the party deleted after about a half-hour.

Kinew had said he is an honorary witness for the TRC, which the commission defined as people who help record historical events and defend the truth as part Indigenous oral traditions.

— with files from Kevin Rollason

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca