Change the name of the Miles Macdonell Collegiate

Miles Macdonnell lived between 1767-1828. At the request of Lord Selkirk, he assumed the post of governor of Selkirk's planned colony on the Red River. According to his biography on Wikipedia: "Historians have generally agreed that, despite the inherent difficulties of establishing a colony at the Red River amid the fierce competition between the fur-trading companies, Macdonell must bear some of the responsibility for the colony’s initial failure. They have focused upon his character faults, his inability to inspire trust and loyalty among his people, his obstinacy, his arrogance, his unaccommodating temper, and his lack of staying power. It was these flaws, as well as his lack of shrewdness and diplomatic skill, that led to his failures. Either he never understood his situation, or worse, refused to come to grips with it. Nowhere is this better shown than in the decision to issue the Pemmican Proclamation. It was promulgated at a time when the colony was too weak to defend itself and it offered the NWC excellent propaganda against both the HBC and Lord Selkirk. His behaviour during those years suggests that he saw the colony as entirely separate from the fur trade but his point of view does not excuse an insensitivity that blinded him to the provocative nature of his actions. Through a similar blindness he alienated his own people, seeking out the company of "gentlemen" in preference to theirs."

The Pemmican Proclamation was issued in 1814. It can be read in its detail on: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pemmican_Proclamation. 

"The Pemmican Proclamation also led to European's control of the pemmican market in the 1820s. The price of pemmican during the Pemmican War was kept low until small amounts of buffalo or meat could be found, when pemmican prices would grow causing many issues for Metis. But with the amalgamation of British fur trade companies in 1821, almost all plains hunters inhabiting the large territories of the Blackfoot Nations (Kainai, Siksika, and Piikani), the Atsina (Gros Ventre), the Assiniboine-Nakota, and the Plains Cree lost bargaining power to a consolidated and systematic provisions buyer."

"One of the many issues which arose during the Pemmican Proclamation was the Battle of Seven Oaks. The Pemmican War worsened the relationship of white European settlers in Canada and the Metis. Lyle Dick, author of the article 'The Seven Oaks Incident and the Construction of a Historical  Tradition, 1860-1970', suggests the Pemmican War played a minor role in motivating the Red River Rebellion of 1870."

The naming of a school after this governor is an affront to the Metis people.

Collin Dubois    Contact the author of the petition