Former Manitoba politician who downplays residential school harm resigns from government committee

A man who plays down the impact of Indian residential schools and expresses doubt about unmarked graves has tendered his resignation from a patronage appointment with the Manitoba government.

Jim McCrae, a former Manitoba justice minister, was appointed earlier this month by current Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen to the masters appointment committee, which helps select judicial officers for the Court of King's Bench.

The three-year term took effect May 10, but McCrae, who is also a former citizenship judge, stepped down after criticism about the appointment was raised by some First Nations leaders in a Winnipeg Free Press story and in the legislature on Thursday by Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont.

"We were shocked, but not surprised, to learn that this PC government has decided to appoint somebody who flat-out denies the documented history of residential schools," Lamont said in question period.

He tabled an article written by McCrae, in which Lamont said McCrae denies the harm done by those schools. Lamont then asked Goertzen to explain why McCrae was selected for the masters committee.

In response, Goertzen said he has not seen the articles, but his government's stance against the harm caused in residential schools is clear, "and we have a long and a strong history when it comes to reconciliation."

In an email to CBC News on Thursday, McCrae said he was surprised by concerns about his appointment. Even so, he said he felt the best course of action was to resign.

"Our courts should be trusted by the public to be qualified and should enjoy the highest level of confidence in their integrity and impartiality," he said.

"If there is any question about my ability to be impartial, then I do not belong on a committee doing the important job of recommending judicial officers."

McCrae said he just completed six years as chair of the social services appeal board, which made him feel comfortable and qualified in taking on the master committee role. 

"Many social services clients are Indigenous Manitobans and under my leadership, all appellants were treated with respect, dignity and fairness, as they should be by our courts as well," he wrote in the email. 

McCrae was co-author of a March 2022 article in the Dorchester Review that suggested the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation "promotes a darker view of Canadian history than the facts justify" and inflates the number of people who died at residential schools.

It goes on to suggest the NCTR "will continue to mislead the Canadian public by implying that the names in its Memorial Register are verified deaths which took place at residential schools."

McCrae's co-author on the piece was Tom Flanagan, a former political science professor at the University of Calgary who has made controversial remarks about Indigenous land claims in the past.

Residential school harm exaggerated: McCrae

In a Western Standard article in December 2022, McCrae wrote that the evidence on Indian residential schools "does not support the overall gruesome narrative put forward around the world for several years."

The article acknowledges there were criminal acts perpetrated against "some unfortunate students" and that the schools played a regrettable part in the history of our country, but asks, "Is it necessary to exaggerate and tell tales that make the history uglier than it already is?"

He claims far fewer children attended residential schools than the public has been led to believe.

More recently, in March 2023, in another Western Standard piece, McCrae questioned the truth behind stories of residential schools.

"Even if we quite carefully and secretly harbour doubt about some of the preposterous stories we're hearing, we must remain silent about it for fear we might offend someone's sensibilities and be accused of denying genocide by questioning unverified stories," he wrote.

CBC News asked the province how McCrae was vetted for the masters appointment, and how his past statements were missed. The province did not answer the questions and instead provided a link to a government website that briefly explains the appointment process. It states people can apply or be nominated for an appointment. It is then up to the minister in charge to recommend people and a committee, comprised of cabinet ministers and government MLAs, either approves the recommendation or asks to consider other candidates.

CBC News has reached out to a number of First Nations organizations for comment.

It's not the first time the Progressive Conservative government has been embroiled in controversy around residential schools.

In July 2021, First Nations representatives stood on the front steps of the legislative building and accused the party and then-Premier Brian Pallister of a "deliberate attempt to distort the history of Indigenous Peoples regarding the policy of genocide at residential schools."

During a Canada Day rally in Winnipeg earlier that same month, following news of the discovery of unmarked graves at former residential schools in Canada, the statues of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth were pulled down on the grounds of the legislature.

Pallister later denounced the actions and made comments that suggested the colonization of Canada was done with good intentions.

The people who came to Canada "didn't come here to destroy anything. They came here to build. They came to build better," he said.

His remarks provoked the resignation of his own Indigenous and northern relations minister, Eileen Clarke, as well as two Indigenous men who served on Manitoba economic development boards.

Within 10 minutes of his appointment, Alan Lagimodiere, Clarke's replacement, told reporters the people who ran residential schools believed "they were doing the right thing."

He said the system was "designed to take Indigenous children and give them the skills and abilities they would need to fit into society as it moved forward." 

Lagimodiere later apologized and has since referred to the schools Indigenous children were forced to attend as being part of a genocide.