The Williams Lake Indian Band is calling for a Williams Lake city Councillor to resign and is asking for an apology from the municipality to the First Nations people of Canada.
At Tuesday’s Williams Lake City Council meeting, Councillor Marnie Brenner made the following comments: “But I’ve also heard stories of where people when they shut down the schools and they’ve had to go back to school in like Riske Creek and stuff where they’ve been disappointing that they had to leave residential school because they had a pool there.”
Speaking on The Jeff Andreas Show, Chief Willie Sellars says comments like this show you how uneducated people are about what reconciliation really is. “To try and downplay the experience that some had over others, to justify some of your economic aspirations within the city is just downright shameful.”
Sellars says it is frustrating to hear those comments coming from a community leader who is supposed to be championing the reconciliation process.
“When we talked about this at the council level and looked at how we were going to approach the comments made by the city of Williams Lake in regards to it. You know, we say one councilor made these statements but I didn’t hear any of the other councilors or the Mayor step in and correct this individual for what she was saying. I think that makes them guilty by association.”
“These kind of comments won’t be tolerated in first nations communities especially in the era of Black Lives Matter and reconciliation. You know, they say that reconciliation is earned, it’s a tow way street, it goes both ways, just those comments alone show you how uneducated these individuals are around what reconciliation truly is.”
“As a first nation leaders in my community who lives in my reserve, I was embarrassed and I get really emotional when we start talking about this because my dad is a residential school survivor, my upbringing was different then most kids. You hear the stories from the elders, you hear the stories from the individuals that have lived through that. It’s no joke and it can’t be downplayed. It’s an important part of history that we have to educate people on and it’s very frustrating to hear those coming from a leader who’s supposed to be championing the reconciliation process, and they aren’t.”
In a release from the Williams Lake Indian Band, Councillor JoAnne Moiese called Brenner’s comments shocking. She says it’s “upsetting and offensive that in 2020 any elected officials would try to downplay the importance of reconciliation, or a local government’s obligations in relation to reconciliation, by suggesting that residential schools weren’t really such a bad thing. Our community, and First Nations communities across the country, are still struggling to overcome the impacts of residential schools. Children were ripped from their homes, they were stripped of their culture and language and they were physically and sexually abused. The reality, though, is that there was only one residential school in this area – St. Joseph’s. Apparently Councillor Brenner isn’t aware of that.”
