Pembina Trails renames Ryerson School in light of reckoning over residential schools

Pembina Trails School Division has decided one of its elementary schools will no longer bear the name of Egerton Ryerson, one of the architects of Canada's residential school system.

What was Ryerson School is now Prairie Sunrise School. 

The division's board of trustees decided to review a name change for the school in June following the discovery of unmarked graves on the grounds of a former residential school in Kamloops, which sparked outrage across the country about the devastating legacy of the residential school system. 

Ryerson was a prominent figure in the creation of the public education system in Ontario, but also a leader in creating separate schools with forced assimilation of Indigenous children, where thousands of students died and sexual and physical abuse and neglect were common.

In a news release, the school division said the new name represents a departure from a "dark and painful history" and a fresh start for the school. 

In August, Ryerson University also voted to change the Toronto school's name over concerns about the man the institution is named for and his links to Canada's residential schools.