A request to strike the name of Bishop Vital Grandin from a St. Albert neighbourhood can proceed through the city’s formal process.
A spokesperson confirmed the application, received July 19, meets the threshold for consideration set out in St. Albert’s Naming Policy, which means at least 50 people have signed on their support.
“City Administration is currently designing and implementing a consultation and communication plan in accordance with the Naming Policy,” spokesperson Cory Sinclair wrote in an email Wednesday, Nov. 13. “The Naming Committee, through the City’s administrative processes, will provide Council with a report and recommendation regarding the removal and renaming after the review and evaluation process is complete.”
That report should be before council in the first quarter of 2025.
Outrage over the use of Bishop Vital Justin Grandin’s name increased after the reported discovery of the suspected remains of 215 children on the grounds of Kamloops Indian Residential School in Tk’emlúps te Secwèpemc First Nation in British Columbia in June 2021, according to a document on the city’s website. No remains have been found at the site to date.
A Roman Catholic priest, Grandin, 1829-1902, was instrumental in establishing Canada’s Indian Residential School System (IRSS). Efforts to remove his name from assets have also surfaced in Morinville, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and elsewhere in the country.
In 2021, Catholic school boards in St. Albert and in Edmonton voted unanimously to remove Grandin’s name from schools.
“The City of St. Albert had two residential schools: The St. Albert Youville Residential School was in operation from 1873 to 1948 and the Edmonton Residential School (located at Poundmaker) was in operation from 1924 to 1968,” according to the St. Albert document, titled Addressing Public Concerns About Grandin Placenames. "Recovery work is currently underway for the St. Albert Youville Residential School.”
The Catholic school boards in St. Albert and Edmonton voted unanimously in 2021 to remove Grandin’s name from their schools. Vital Grandin School in St. Albert was renamed Holy Family on Sept. 27 of that year.
No request for Duhaime Place
The city has also confirmed that it has not received any other applications for the removal of the naming of municipal assets.
The update came in response to a query about the status of a renaming request for Duhaime Place. The Gazette first reported in 2022 that an out-of-province podcaster had unearthed accusations of sexual abuse against as many as 15 Indigenous children by its namesake, Father Anthony (Antonio) Duhaime.
The alleged abuses took place while Duhaime was the principal of a residential school in Duck Lake, Saskatchewan.
Through an access to information and protection of privacy (ATIPP) request made to the Canadian Department of Justice, reporter Connie Walker obtained the documents from 482 civil lawsuits filed by plaintiffs who attended St. Michael's residential school. In episode seven of the series, released on June 21, Walker says "most of these allegations were never tested or proven in court because many of the claims were dropped so that survivors could participate in the [Independent Assessment Process]."
Among the 482 civil lawsuits, 15 included statements of claim from plaintiffs alleging Duhaime sexually abused them, Walker reported.
In the City of St. Albert's "A History of Street Names" document from 2018, Duhaime is only listed as the "Director of the Retreat House (1954)." The "Retreat House" refers to the Star of the North Retreat House in St. Albert. On the Retreat House's website, it says the house "opened in 1953, offering retreats and spiritual oasis to the Christian community at large" in St. Albert.
