Communities across western Canada have moved to rename places named after Bishop Vital-Justin Grandin in the wake of the discovery of hundreds of possible unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in 2021. Here are a few of them.
• St. Albert
St. Albert’s move to remove Grandin from its place names started with a notice motion from Coun. Natalie Jolie on May 31, 2021, to revise the city’s naming policy to account for its commitments under the Payhonin Reconciliation Report. That led to several rounds of consultation, a new policy, and in October 2024, an application to rename the Grandin neighbourhood. City council voted to change Grandin to The Gardens on March 18.
Greater St. Albert Catholic voted to strike a committee to review its school names on May 31, 2021. That committee recommended a new name for Vital Grandin Catholic Elementary School. Trustees voted unanimously to rename the school on June 28, with Trustee Joan Crockett saying, “Leaders who champion residential schooling can no longer be namesakes of our schools.”
The district struck a renaming committee composed of parents, school administrators, trustees, and Indigenous persons, which came up with five replacement names. A vote by the school community narrowed this list to three, with Holy Family Catholic earning the most support. GSACRD trustees voted to rename the school to Holy Family Catholic on Sept. 27.
• Edmonton
The City of Edmonton received two petitions to rename its Grandin LRT station and to remove a controversial residential school mural in it in early June 2021 one week after the Kamloops discovery, the Edmonton Journal reports. Said petitions had amassed 3,000 signatures by June 6. Then-mayor Don Iveson threw his support behind the movement soon after.
On June 7, Edmonton city council voted unanimously to strike Grandin from the station’s name and cover the mural with orange panels. The station was renamed to Government Centre, and the mural removed that fall.
Edmonton Catholic School Division voted June 28, 2021, to rename the roughly 105-year-old Grandin Catholic Elementary School due to its links to Bishop Grandin. The Grandin name and a mural of Bishop Grandin were removed from the school’s exterior that same day. After working with the division’s Elder’s Advisory Council, trustees voted to rename the school as Holy Child Catholic on Sept. 29. The name was picked to honour both the children lost to residential schools and to serve as a positive message to today’s youth.
• Winnipeg
The City of Winnipeg had three streets named after Grandin in June 2021, the city’s website reports: Bishop Grandin Boulevard, Bishop Grandin Trail, and Grandin Street.
On June 16, the city’s executive policy committee directed its Indigenous Relations Division to start talks with the Indigenous community on a proposal to rename these streets in a way that would honour Indigenous history. An Indigenous Knowledge Naming Circle met that September, resulting in three recommended names: for the boulevard, Abinojii Mikanah (“Children’s Road” in Anishinaabemowin); for the trail, Awasisak Mēskanôw (“Children’s Road” in Cree); and for the street, Taapweewin (“Truth” in Michif) Way.
City council endorsed the new names on March 23, 2023, approved them in law on April 25, 2024, and held a formal renaming ceremony in June 2024.
• Calgary
Calgary Catholic School District temporarily renamed its Bishop Grandin High School to Haysboro High on June 28, 2021 following talks with Indigenous Elders and the school community, the Calgary Herald and CBC report. The school was renamed as Our Lady of the Rockies School in early October.
