At a public meeting of the Mountain View School Division on Monday, trustee Paul Coffey gave a half-hour long talk on the topic of “racism and anti-racism,” a speech subsequently criticized as ignorant and offensive by local leaders.
“Mr. Coffey was speaking as an individual and his opinions and comments were his own and possibly those of other constituents in his ward,” board chair Gabe Mercier said in the statement. “We just want to go into our classrooms and do our job and do what’s best for kids…and this attention on the community, it’s a little unfair to the individuals that are working hard in the division.”
For Chief Cornell McLean of Lake Manitoba First Nation, Coffey’s presentation was a ‘disturbing’ example of an ignorant attitude toward First Nations people and reconciliation.“We talk a lot about reconciliation, and he has no idea what that is,” McLean told Global Winnipeg. “He just opened up a whole can of worms for survivors. You know, in terms of all of the hurt that they went through… residential schools, the government of Canada acknowledged that — they apologized for the wrongdoings.
Northwest Metis Council vice-president Frances Chartrand said Coffey’s comments were a “direct assault” on efforts toward truth and reconciliation.