Reconciliation talk draws Bowman into mayoral campaign quarrel By: Kevin Rollason Posted: 5:47 PM CDT Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022 Last Modified: 6:43 AM CDT Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022 Updates

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Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman said he wasn’t going to publicly endorse any 2022 mayoral candidate — but didn’t say he wouldn’t slam them on the issue of reconciliation.

Bowman, in his last days in office before the Oct. 26 civic election, used social media Wednesday morning to criticize repeated comments made by Jenny Motkaluk.

“Winnipeg has come too far on our journey of reconciliation to turn the clock back,” Bowman said on Twitter. “Standing up for Canada means fighting to build a more inclusive city for all including Indigenous peoples.

“Most Winnipeggers understand this and it’s why this candidate will once again lose.”

Bowman, Winnipeg’s first Métis mayor, handily beat Motkaluk in the 2018 civic vote, 114,222 to 76,554, to secure a second term. He chose not to run again this year.

In an interview Wednesday, Motkaluk fired back: “I think Brian Bowman has just done a very good job of letting Winnipeggers know why I ran against him in 2018.”

“He agreed with Maclean’s (magazine 2015 article) we are the most racist city in the country… since then he has been sowing fear and doubt. I am the only candidate for mayor who is standing up for Canada,” she said, further responding to Bowman on Twitter by posting a picture of a chicken.

Bowman later said through a spokesperson he would have no further comment.

Earlier this month, Motkaluk held a news conference at The Forks, where she repeated her criticism from the summer about the downtown national historic site’s move to change its Canada Day celebrations to “A New Day,” after months of Indigenous-led discussions.

The July 1 event put more emphasis on cross-cultural programming, including powwow dancing and drumming, and didn’t host its traditional fireworks display at night.

Motkaluk, who has also vowed to fire the three City of Winnipeg representatives on The Forks board, said: “When I’m mayor of Winnipeg, no one is going to tell me or my neighbours that we should be ashamed of our country or who we are.”

Soon after, the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs issued a statement criticizing Motkaluk’s stance.

“The Canada that Jenny Motkaluk is celebrating was built off the suffering First Nations and should have never existed in the first place,” deputy grand chief Cornell McLean said at the time.

“The Canada that Jenny Motkaluk is celebrating was built off the suffering First Nations and should have never existed in the first place.”–Deputy Grand Chief Cornell McLean

“It is time to move forward in reconciliation and create new traditions to honour what this nation was meant to be. Canada is home for all of us… As a nation, we need to come together and agree that celebrating colonization and genocide is no longer part of the agenda.

“Reconciliation is the direction all politicians should walk towards, not away from.”

On Wednesday, McLean declined comment on the Bowman-Motkaluk exchange, instead saying: “It is very important that anyone coming into the role of Mayor for this city understands, not only the meaning of reconciliation, but that truth will always come first and foremost.”

Bowman’s post was a reversal from a pledge that, following media interviews after his final city council meeting, he was going to stay quiet until after the election. The mayor had also said he wasn’t planning to endorse any candidate and would only not vote for someone who wasn’t going to see through the city’s legal actions on the police headquarters construction project.

Early in Bowman’s first term of office, a January 2015 article in Maclean’s magazine declared: “Welcome to Winnipeg: where Canada’s racism problem is at its worst.”

In response, Bowman called together a diverse committee for a racism summit to help work towards reconciliation.

Paul Thomas, professor emeritus in political studies at the University of Manitoba, said he believes Bowman did want to stay out of the current election fray, but felt he had to say something.

“It shows how attached he is to reconciliation,” Thomas said Wednesday. “Because of his attachment to the Maclean’s article, to him (his response) is a highlight of his time in office… I guess he couldn’t hold back if somebody talks about it.”

Indigenous mayoral candidate Robert-Falcon Ouellette said Wednesday: “When in leadership roles, we have to be careful what we say — we can cause damage. I hope that we can continue to build bridges between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people and build a city for everyone.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca