Vital-Justin Grandin (8 February 1829 – 3 June 1902) was a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

and

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

known as a key architect of the

Canadian Indian residential school system In Canada, the Indian residential school system was a network of boarding schools for Indigenous peoples. The network was funded by the Canadian government's Department of Indian Affairs and administered by Christian churches. The school sy ...

, which has been labeled an instrument of

cultural genocide Cultural genocide or cultural cleansing is a concept which was proposed by lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1944 as a component of genocide. Though the precise definition of ''cultural genocide'' remains contested, the Armenian Genocide Museum defines ...

. In June 2021, this led to governments and private businesses to begin removing his name from institutions and infrastructure previously named for him. He served the Church in the western parts of what is now

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both before and after

Confederation A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a union of sovereign groups or states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

. He is also the namesake or co-founder of various small communities and neighbourhoods in what is now

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, especially those of francophone residents.

Early life

Grandin was born in Saint-Pierre-sur-Orthe,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, on 8 February 1829. He was the ninth son in a family of fourteen children of Jean Grandin and Marie Veillard. He was ordained as a priest in 1854; one month later he was sent by the

Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) is a missionary religious congregation in the Catholic Church. It was founded on January 25, 1816, by Eugène de Mazenod, a French priest born in Aix-en-Provence in the south of France on August 1, ...

to Canada to perform missionary work in what was then

Rupert's Land Rupert's Land (french: Terre de Rupert), or Prince Rupert's Land (french: Terre du Prince Rupert, link=no), was a territory in British North America which comprised the Hudson Bay drainage basin; this was further extended from Rupert's Land t ...

. Upon arrival he was sent to Saint-Boniface, where Bishop

Alexandre-Antonin Taché Alexandre-Antonin Taché, O.M.I., (23 July 1823 – 22 June 1894) was a Canadian Roman Catholic priest, missionary of the Oblate order, author, and the first Archbishop of Saint Boniface in Manitoba, Canada. Early life Alexandre-Antonin ...

was in charge. Grandin was subsequently assigned to a mission at

Fort Chipewyan Fort Chipewyan , commonly referred to as Fort Chip, is a hamlet in northern Alberta, Canada, within the Regional Municipality (RM) of Wood Buffalo. It is located on the western tip of Lake Athabasca, adjacent to Wood Buffalo National Park, approx ...

(now in

). He next served at

Île-à-la-Crosse Île-à-la-Crosse, or ''Sakitawak'' ( Cree name: sâkitawâhk ᓵᑭᑕᐚᕽ), is a northern village in Division No. 18, northwestern Saskatchewan, and was the site of historic trading posts first established in 1778. Île-à-la-Crosse is th ...

(now in

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

) for a number of years.

Bishop

In 1867, Taché proposed that the

vicariate A vicar (; Latin: ''vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pref ...

of Saskatchewan be formed with Grandin as vicar of missions. That took place in 1868, and the same year, Grandin attended the council of Quebec bishops in 1868 to discuss new religious boundaries in the Canadian northwest. As a result of those discussions, St. Boniface was elevated and the

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Anglican Communion, a suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop (bishop ordinary) and so is not normally jurisdictiona ...

Diocese of St Albert The Archdiocese of Edmonton ( la, Archidioecesis Edmontonensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese in the Canadian civil province of Alberta. The archbishop's cathedral see is located in St. Joseph Cathedral, a minor basil ...

was created. In 1871, Vital-Justin Grandin was appointed bishop. Grandin was an early supporter of the

and believed that

Indigenous Peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

faced extinction and that the best way for them "to become civilized" and to avoid destruction was to educate the young with the "consent of their parents." In 1880 he wrote a letter to then Public Works Minister

Hector-Louis Langevin Sir Hector-Louis Langevin, (August 25, 1826 – June 11, 1906) was a Canadian lawyer, politician, and one of the Fathers of Confederation. Early life and education Langevin was born in Quebec City in 1826. He studied law and was called to t ...

explaining that boarding schools were the best way to ensure children "forget the customs, habits & language of their ancestors". The 2015 ''Report of the

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC; french: Commission de vérité et réconciliation du Canada []) was a truth and reconciliation commission active in Canada from 2008 to 2015, organized by the parties of the Indian Reside ...

'' states that he had "led the campaign for residential schooling" and that he was convinced that parents would willingly give their children to boarding schools. He wrote, “The poor Indians wish nothing more than the happiness of their children. They foresee well enough the future which awaits them and often beg of us to take them so that we can prepare them for a better prospect.” In a letter to Canada's first prime minister,

John A. Macdonald Sir John Alexander Macdonald (January 10 or 11, 1815 – June 6, 1891) was the first prime minister of Canada, serving from 1867 to 1873 and from 1878 to 1891. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, he had a political career that sp ...

, Grandin stressed the "success" that had been achieved at the missionary boarding schools, and reported, “The children whom we have brought up are no longer Indians & at the time of leaving our Establishments, the boys at least, do not wish to receive even the ordinary grants made to Indians, they wish to live like the whites and they are able to do so.” He proposed for the government to “make a trial of letting us have children of five years old and leaving them in our Orphan Asylums & Industrial schools until the time of their marriage or the age of 21 years.” For that cause, he made the trip to the nation's capital city,

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

, to lobby the government and upper echelons of the Catholic bureaucracy directly. His efforts were later described by commentators in 2021 as an implementation of

. Grandin was never completely healthy; he had been a sickly child and also had a speech impediment, and his health deteriorated during his later years. He also presided over the development and expansion of the Diocese of St. Albert, including the founding of new missions and churches throughout Alberta and the construction of hospitals and schools, which, unusually for the time, were administered by members of female religious orders and lay clergy. Grandin's efforts to increase francophone settlement in Alberta were less successful, but many francophone communities founded at the behest of Grandin (such as

Beaumont Beaumont may refer to: Places Canada * Beaumont, Alberta * Beaumont, Quebec England * Beaumont, Cumbria * Beaumont, Essex ** Beaumont Cut, a canal closed in the 1930s * Beaumont Street, Oxford France (communes) * Beaumont, Ardèche * ...

Lacombe Lacombe may refer to: Places * Lacombe, Alberta, Canada * Lacombe County, Alberta, Canada * Lacombe, Louisiana, United States * Lacombe, Aude, France People * Albert Lacombe (1827–1916), oblate missionary to the Cree and Blackfoot * Bernard Lac ...

, and

Morinville Morinville is a town in the Edmonton Metropolitan Region of Alberta, Canada. It is approximately north of Edmonton along Highway 2. History Morinville was settled by Jean-Baptiste Morin, a priest and missionary of the Missionary Oblates ...

) still exist in central and northern Alberta.

Death and legacy

Grandin died in office on 3 June 1902. He was declared venerable by the Roman Catholic Church in 1966. Upon his death, Grandin was succeeded by Bishop

Émile-Joseph Legal Émile-Joseph Legal (October 9, 1849 – March 10, 1920) was born in France and went to Lachine, Quebec, where he was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate order in 1880. Legal worked briefly in the United ...

in the Diocese of St. Albert. Many institutions were named for Grandin during the 20th century, including

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

-area businesses, schools, and city infrastructure. That included public murals painted in homage of him, as late as 1989, which were one of the first items related to Grandin to come under scrutiny in 2011, when an Indigenous working group in Edmonton found the mural glorified residential schooling "and of all the horrors of the cultural genocide that entailed." In June 2021, after the discovery of unmarked graves of Indigenous children on the grounds of a former residential school site in

Kamloops Kamloops ( ) is a city in south-central British Columbia, Canada, at the confluence of the South flowing North Thompson River and the West flowing Thompson River, east of Kamloops Lake. It is located in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, w ...

, British Columbia, Edmonton and St. Albert city officials, as well as private businesses, began removing his name in reaction to a strengthening public condemnation of his role in creating the Indigenous residential school system. Similar pushes to remove his name also occurred in other cities, including the Canadian cities of

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

and

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

, as well as smaller communities like

South Indian Lake, Manitoba South Indian Lake is an Indian settlement located on the southeast shore of Southern Indian Lake in northern Manitoba, Canada, about north of the city of Thompson by air. It had a population of 981 in 2016, and is the main settlement of the O-Pip ...

Buildings and businesses from which Grandin name has been removed

*June 9, 2021: The city of Edmonton votes to rename the Grandin LRT station and remove a mural of Grandin displayed in the station. *June 15, 2021: Grandin Fish ‘n’ Chips restaurant renames to Prairie Fish ‘n’ Chips *June 28, 2021: Edmonton Catholic Schools votes to rename Grandin School and remove a mural depicting Bishop Grandin on an exterior wall of the school *June 28, 2021: Calgary Catholic School District votes to rename Bishop Grandin High School to Haysboro Catholic High School * June 28, 2021: In a Special Public Meeting, Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools' unanimously approved a motion to change the name of Vital Grandin Catholic Elementary School by Sept. 30, 2021. Signage was removed from the school building immediately following the decision. * Oct 27, 2022: Calgary Catholic School District confirms final name change of Bishop Grandin High School to

Our Lady of the Rockies ''Our Lady of the Rockies'' is a 90-foot (27 m) statue built in the likeness of Mary, the mother of Jesus, that sits atop the Continental Divide overlooking Butte, Montana. It is the fourth-tallest statue in the United States after ''Birth of ...

High School.

Notes

External links