Winnipeg's Wolseley School to be renamed within the year, ending connection to colonial general

Five years after a petition circulated calling for the renaming of Wolseley School in Winnipeg, the province's largest school division is taking new name suggestions from the public.

The aim is to have the new name in place within the year, possibly before summer, says Matt Henderson, chief superintendent and CEO of the Winnipeg School Division (WSD).

"I have four board meetings left [before the school year is over] and so hopefully we'll be able to get that done, but we don't want to rush the process," he told CBC Manitoba Information Radio host Marcy Markusa.

"My initial thought is sort of spring, but if the stars don't align we can push that to fall. If we have to kick it into next year, we can do that, too."

Built on Clifton Street in 1921, the school — and the entire neighbourhood in which is exists — was named after Col. Garnet J. Wolseley, a British general who led colonial campaigns in the 19th century, including commanding the 1870 Red River Expedition to suppress Louis Riel and the Métis resistance in what was to become Manitoba.

The WSD launched a public survey last week, outlining the guidelines and criteria for the renaming process, and invited the public to submit their ideas. The cut-off date is April 7.

"We've had over 155 submissions so far, which is exciting," Henderson said.

The renaming committee will cut down the list to three names, which will be presented at a community consultation for feedback. Those three will be narrowed to two and given to the WSD board of trustees for a final decision.

"These decisions aren't made on the fly by the board or by anyone. There is a bit of a process within board policy," Henderson said, noting the process began a while back.

The division has held community consultations, while teachers and students examined the school's name, the significance of Wolseley and other key figures at that time, and conducted a Métis learning series on the history of the area.

Students were then asked to make reasoned ethical judgments, Henderson says: "We want people to think deeply about names and not take them for granted."

A recent fundamental shift in WSD policy means schools can no longer be named after a person "for obvious reasons," Henderson said.

"I know some schools in North America that are called Justice or that they're called Hope. Certainly, we see that there's a move to schools that are named in Anishinaabemowin."

The WSD in 2022 renamed Cecil Rhodes School in the city's Weston area to Keewatin Prairie Community School. Keewatin means "the land of the northwest wind" in Cree and Ojibway. That was also prompted by a public petition.

Rhodes, founder of the Rhodes Scholarships at Oxford, was a British businessman, imperialist and politician.

He advocated vigorous settler colonialism and touted views that white Europeans were "the first race in the world." His policies paved the way for apartheid in South Africa.

The petition came out during a global wave of anti-racism rallies, the same week the Wolseley petition began.

The latter also called for the renaming of Wolseley Avenue in that neighbourhood and Lord Wolseley School on Henderson Highway in the city's East Kildonan area.

The wave eventually subsided and the focus on Wolseley slipped off the public radar until a couple of years ago when the parent advisory council at Wolseley School revived it, putting forward a request to the WSD to start a formal review process.

"That's really where it needs to come — from [the] community, to be able to say, 'hey, we're not really comfortable [with] the name of a particular school for these reasons. Let's engage in a conversation,'" Henderson said.

"So that's what happened. There was lots of consultation over the last few years, and now we're kind of at a critical point where we're asking for suggestions."

Lord Wolseley is located in the River East Transcona School Division. CBC News reached out to the division to see if that school's name is being reviewed but has not received a response.