An Indigenous MP, who called for the renaming of Ottawa's Langevin Block because of its namesake's role in the creation of the residential school system, said he does not feel the same way about stripping the name of Canada's first prime minister from public schools.
This week the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario kicked off a national debate when delegates revealed they
passed a motion that called on school districts to "examine and rename schools and buildings named after Sir John A. Macdonald."
This would be done, the motion said, "in recognition of his central role as the architect of genocide against Indigenous peoples."
"When we start effacing completely that history, and not recognizing it, then people can forget very readily what occurred. And so for me it's always important to have that anchor," Liberal MP Robert-Falcon Ouellette told Chris Hall, host of CBC's
The House.
"Everyone has warts. That's what makes us human beings"
Macdonald is praised for rousing the support needed for Confederation, making it happen and then keeping the country together, but his legacy is also blemished by his support for residential schools, the
Indian Act, and the
hanging of Louis Riel.
Ouellette, originally from the Red Pheasant First Nation in Saskatchewan, said keeping Macdonald's names on schools allows teachers to reflect on the complexity of his character in Canadian history
The Winnipeg MP was one of a group of federal Indigenous politicians, including fellow Liberal Don Rusnak, Independent Hunter Tootoo and New Democrat Roméo Saganash, who called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to rename the building housing the Prime Minister's Office so that survivors of residential schools would not be perpetually reminded of a man who "devastated their lives."
The building was named after Hector-Louis Langevin, a Father of Confederation and a prominent member of Macdonald's cabinet, who was also a proponent of the creation of the schools to assimilate First Nations children,
'Everyone has warts': Indigenous MP supports John A. Macdonald's name on schools - Politics - CBC News