I am horrified to learn that Vital Justin Grandin was one of the primary individuals involved in the proliferation and support of Residential Schools.
According to a CBC article in August, his involvement was cited in the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, which concluded Grandin "led the campaign for residential schooling."
I came across this after a Facebook meme was circulating with the following quote attributed to Bishop Vital Grandin, 1875:
"We instill in them a pronounced dictate for the native life so that they will be humiliated when reminded of their origin. When they gradate from our institutions, the children have lost everything Native except their blood."
This is beyond horrifying to me to think that we have a Catholic School here in honour of this person and that I, myself, live in a neighbourhood named after him.
In light of Truth and Reconciliation, in light of recognizing that we, St. Albertans, are on traditional Treaty 6 lands, in light of recent racist events in our city – in fact, in Grandin, where an Indigenous family was subjected to hatred and violent threatening mail – I cannot sit still or quiet about this.
We would not think twice or tolerate a school, a street, or a neighbourhood named after Stalin or Hitler, yet we are celebrating and continuing to honour a man who "led the campaign for residential schooling?"
Kristin Kalmbach, St. Albert
