Manitobas Indigenous relations minister resigns from cabinet after premiers comments on colonial history

Eileen Clarke has resigned as Manitoba's Indigenous and northern relations minister after Premier Brian Pallister made comments last week that suggested the colonization of Canada was done with good intentions.

Clarke confirmed her resignation on Wednesday morning and said Pallister's comments were a factor in that decision, although she did not specify which comments.

Clarke said she will not speak further about her resignation right now out of respect for the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs election happening today. Her constituency office confirmed she is staying on in her role as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA).

She said she resigned Friday afternoon. Two days earlier Pallister chastised people who had been involved in tearing down statues of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth on the grounds of the Manitoba Legislature on Canada Day, after a walk held to remember Indigenous children who died at residential schools.

"We need to respect our heritage just as we need to respect one another.... Not to find fault, not to tear down, not to highlight every failure, but rather to realize that we're a complex country as we are made up of complex people," Pallister said at a news conference, adding the statues would be restored.

"The people who came here to this country â€" before it was a country and since â€" didn't come here to destroy anything. They came here to build. They came to build better."

Clarke was first elected as the Progressive Conservative MLA for the electoral district of Agassiz in 2016 and became the minister of Indigenous and municipal relations the same year, her profile on the government's website says. 

She was re-elected as an MLA in 2019 and remained minister of Indigenous relations until she resigned last week.

'People have lost confidence' 

Mary Jane Logan McCallum, a history professor at the University of Winnipeg and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous people, history and archives, says she was initially surprised to learn of Clarke's resignation but ultimately felt the move made sense.

"When you think about that kind of work that she has to do with First Nations people, how can she build those relationships and work with people when she represents … a party with that kind of leadership?" said McCallum, a member of the Munsee-Delaware Nation in Ontario.

Mary Jane Logan McCallum is a history professor at the University of Winnipeg and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous people, history and archives. She says she has felt a sense of progress around issues related to Indigenous people in recent years. (Sean Kavanagh/CBC)

McCallum says she's felt a sense of progress around issues related to Indigenous people over the last few years. And while comments like Pallister's can chip away at that sense, people taking a stand, like she feels Clarke did, can bolster it, she says.

"When you see this kind of movement within the party, [it feels] like maybe now, maybe this is actually going to be a larger movement for change," McCallum said.

Paul Thomas, a professor emeritus of political studies at the University of Manitoba, says even Pallister's "political friends" have described his latest comments as inappropriate.

But it's still unlikely those remarks will be enough for anyone within the party to challenge his leadership, especially since he's left the door open to stepping down before his term is up.

"People who revolt against a leader often don't have great futures if the revolt fails," Thomas said, pointing to the rebellion within the Manitoba NDP in 2014 that saw five dissident ministers quickly replaced.

Paul Thomas is a professor emeritus of political studies at the University of Manitoba. (CBC)

But there's still room for others within the party to speak out against the comments, especially since they came from a leader who "accounts for most of the troubles that the party has encountered," Thomas said.

"I think some people have lost confidence and trust in the premier. So we'll have to see if others join Ms. Clarke in coming forward. And that's uncertain at this point," he said.

Later Wednesday, PC MLA Shannon Martin (McPhillips) expressed regret about Clarke's resignation on Twitter but called her decision understandable. He described Clarke as "a tireless advocate for reconciliation."

Premier's latest misstep

Pallister's comments last week, which were criticized by Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars as ahistorical and insensitive, marked his latest stumble on issues related to Indigenous people in Manitoba.

In 2017, he said divisions between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people over illegal night hunting were "becoming a race war." Pallister did not apologize for those remarks, though he later walked them back by saying he used "the wrong choice of words."

In late 2020, the premier suggested the need to prioritize Indigenous people for COVID-19 vaccines would put Manitobans "at the back of the line" for doses if the province didn't receive a larger proportional share of shots.

Those comments were slammed by Indigenous leaders, including Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Garrison Settee, who asked for an apology.

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