While many Manitobans were shocked to hear Indigenous Reconciliation and Northern Relations Minister, Alan Lagimodiere’s comments last week on how residential schools were started with “good intentions” mere hours after he was sworn in, I was not. As a Northern Indigenous MLA, I see a profound ignorance and lack of understanding of Indigenous truth and rights from the PC government everyday at the legislature. Just one-week prior, Premier Pallister completely minimized the brutal reality of colonization when he said “The people who came here to this country, before it was a country and since, didn't come here to destroy anything, they came here to build. They came to build better.” These comments led to previous Indigenous and Northern Relations Minister, Eileen Clarke resigning and Lagimodiere taking her place. When the Premier was asked to apologize about his remarks, the Premier doubled down on his comments.
After hearing Minister Lagimodiere’s comments on residential schools, my thought was that Manitobans will get a chance to witness this government’s understandings on Indigenous issues. Unfortunately, their ignorance is not only demonstrated through their comments, but also through their legislation. When they took office in 2016, they immediately got rid of the weekly Indigenous Issues Cabinet meetings that was in place. They’ve also introduced Bills such as Bill 57 ‘the Protection of Criminal Infrastructure Act’ and Bill 56, ‘the Smoking and Vapour Products Control Amendment Act’ that are deliberately designed to erode Indigenous people’s rights. As an Indigenous woman sitting in the legislative chamber, I find it quite upsetting hearing the Pallister government’s out of touch realities for Manitobans, in particular for Indigenous and northern Manitoban’s. Myself and my NDP colleagues fought very hard through debate to try and educate the PC caucus and to protect the rights and history of Indigenous people. We have also written to the new Minister to ask him to release his mandate letter so all Manitobans know what steps he and his government plan to take with respect to reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples and to address the concerns of Northern Manitobans.
If there is one positive takeaway about this government’s upsetting comments on Indigenous people, its that there has been a lot of pushback from the public. More and more people are educating themselves about the history of Indigenous people, whether its by learning about traditional ways of life, researching the truth and reconciliation commissions calls to action, or learning about residential schools.
These people understand that the Premier and Minister Lagimodiere’s comments were not only wrong, but they are unacceptable. Hopefully, as more people learn and understand the history of what happened on this land, the attitudes of Canadians will change and we can work towards true reconciliation.
If you have any questions, comments or concerns, feel free to reach out by email at Amanda.lathlin@yourmanitoba.ca or call me at 1-204-623-2034. Kinanaskomitin.
