Bulletin
Call on the Calgary Catholic School Board to rename Bishop Grandin High School
June 14, 2021
To: MoveUP Members in the Calgary & District Labour Council area
We are asking all our members in the Calgary area to take the time to write to the Calgary Catholic School Board urging them to change the name of Bishop Grandin High School.
The trustees will be meeting at the end of June to discuss a name change.
As many of you are now aware, in late May, news broke of the discovery of the remains of 215 children found buried at a former Indian residential school in Kamloops. This news has brought into the spotlight again the horror, cruelty, and evilness of the Indian residential school system.
In order for genuine truth and reconciliation to occur, a first step to take is to ensure that those who were part of creating this system no longer enjoy an honoured status in our society. That includes no longer having their names be part of structures or monuments that give them revered status.
Please send your correspondence directly to the school board trustees:
Mary Martin – Chair – Ward 13 and 14: mary.martin@cssd.ab.ca
Linda Wellman – Ward 3 and 5: linda.wellman@cssd.ab.ca
Pamela Rath – Ward 4 and 7: pamela.rath@cssd.ab.ca
More information
Bishop Vital-Justin Grandin was one of the architects of the residential school system. It was a system that took 150,000 children and intentionally displaced them far from their homes and families.
These school systems were overcrowded, poorly-heated, had poor sanitation, and high rates of disease and deaths. Children were malnourished, subjected to corporal punishment, subjected to sexual abuse, and many did not survive as a result.
Bishop Grandin once stated, “we instill in them a profound distaste for the (indigenous) life so that they will be humiliated when reminded of their origin. When they graduate from our institutions, children will have lost everything indigenous except their blood.”
In solidarity,
Lori Mayhew & Rysa Kronebusch
Co-chairs, Political Action Committee