Questions swirl over Mark Carney's father's role in NWT Indian school

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OTTAWA – Liberal Leader Mark Carney fielded no questions Friday over his father’s role as principal of an Indian day school in Canada’s north.

Highlighted in a story published Thursday by CBC Indigenous, the Liberal leader’s father Robert J. Carney was principal of the Joseph Burr Tyrrell school, formerly the Fort Smith Federal Day School – a government-run federal Indian day school in the Northwest Territories.

The elder Carney began his role as principal of the Fort Smith school in 1962 – three years before Mark Carney was born – and he died in 2009.

During a 1965 CBC Radio interview on educational programs established at his school for “culturally-retarded children,” Robert Carney described such students, in the context of the Northwest Territories, as a “child from a Native background who for various reasons has not been in regular attendance in school,” or from a non-English speaking background who doesn’t perform well in school.

Carney then compared these children to those from urban, working-class families in Southern Canada, saying, “You would have children who you would call culturally retarded.”

Reports on the issue published by CBCas well as Indigenous broadcaster APTN, feature testimonials from former students who described it as a “mixed school,” with Indigenous students attending class with white children.

Beginning in the 1870s, Canada operated a network of residential and day schools for Indigenous youth for over 120 years.

Overseen by various churches, over 150,000 Indigenous students attended these schools – which aimed to “assimilate” them into Canadian culture.

Instances of physical, emotional and sexual abuse of students prompted a number of settlements and apologies from the government to survivors.

While students at residential schools were usually taken from their families and lived there full-time, Indian day schools operated within or adjacent to Indigenous communities with children only attending during school hours.

CBC described the elder Carney’s legacy at the school as “complicated,” with historians and Indigenous scholars debating if it’s the Liberal Leader’s responsibility to speak out about his father.

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APTN says they’ve made several requests to Carney’s campaign for a sit-down interview with no success.

Reporters attending a Friday morning press conference asked Carney no questions about the report of his father’s legacy.

In a statement from the campaign to CBC, a spokesperson acknowledged that the residential and day school systems were undeniably a painful chapter in our country’s history, with real harms that reverberate to this day.

“In his first weeks as Prime Minister, Mark Carney has taken important steps to ensure that advancing reconciliation is a foundational commitment of our new government,” the statement read.

bpassifiume@postmedia.com
X: @bryanpassifiume