Utoo Radio - April 26, 2024 - A school trustee's comments on Indigenous people and residential schools have led to condemnation and a review by the Manitoba government.

Paul Coffey, a trustee in the Mountain View School Division in western Manitoba, claimed that residential schools started as a good thing for reading, writing, arithmetic, and enforcement of school attendance.

He questioned the extent of abuse at residential schools as laid out in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report in 2015.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission spent years investigating the history and lasting harms of church-operated, government-funded residential schools that more than 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend.

The Southern Chiefs’ Organization, which represents dozens of First Nations communities in Manitoba, has called for Coffey to be removed from the board.

The Manitoba Teachers’ Society said Coffey’s comments were vitriolic, uninformed, and harmful. The superintendent of the Mountain View School Division denounced Coffey’s comments, stating that they have done much damage that has the potential to undo years of important reconciliation work and runs against all that they stand for. Manitoba Education Minister Nello Altomare is looking into the matter and is launching a governance review.