Ontario elementary teachers’ union calls for renaming John A. Macdonald schools
TORONTO — A call from an Ontario teachers’ union to remove the name of Canada’s first prime minister from public elementary schools was rejected by the province’s premier Thursday as she noted the need to understand all parts of the country’s history.
The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario passed a motion at its annual meeting last week that called on all school districts to rename schools and buildings named after Sir John A. Macdonald.
The union said it wanted the name change because of what it called Macdonald’s role as the “architect of genocide against Indigenous Peoples” and the impact that had on the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, parents and educators.
Macdonald was prime minister during the time the federal government approved the first residential schools in the country.