Around 40 demonstrators made up of students and both the Indigenous and non-Indigenous community took to the streets Thursday afternoon near Nipissing University’s College Drive campus to call out the school for not doing enough to address a situation where a student had an interaction with former Ontario Premier Mike Harris regarding the Ipperwash crisis.
Indigenous demonstrators carrying signs and their allies were chanting and drumming up support for their demand that the Harris Learning Library be renamed following an interaction with fourth-year university student Cheyenne Sego had with Harris two weeks ago.
“There’s been overwhelming support for untangling Nipissing University from Mike Harris’ destructive colonial legacy,” student protestor Bee Dokis said.
The incident
Harris was on campus on March 20 as part of the celebration of a $2 million donation made to the school by The Joyce Family Foundation, he was in attendance to make a speech on behalf of the foundation.
Sego approached Harris about the Ipperwash scandal following his remarks.
Sego is a member of Sagamok First Nation and Wikwemikong Unceded Territory and was in attendance to receive the Ron Marleau Memorial Award.
She told reporters she wanted to speak with Harris and initially thanked him for the contribution towards the bursary.
Sego said she then asked him how he plans to reconcile with Indigenous youth after Harris allegedly made a racist remark in 1995, a day prior to 38-year-old Dudley George’s shooting death at the hands of OPP during the height of the Ipperwash crisis.
“Dudley George’s family, we’re still fighting to honor him,” Sego said at the protest.
“We’re still fighting for reconciliation. This matters.”
Sego said Harris responded to her saying he did want the protestors to leave and that First Nations people “were on Indian land”.
“That’s what he said to me and that’s how I took it,” she said.
“He said, ‘Excuse me’ and he put his hands on me with a pamphlet, and he’s like, ‘Alright.’ I said, ‘Get your hands off me. Don’t ever touch me again.‘”
Sego said the former premier then “scoffed” and walked away.
Harris and eight other witnesses have repeatedly denied that he ever made the racist comment in 1995.
Wanting an apology and more
Demonstrators told CTV News that they want an apology from university president and vice-chancellor Kevin Wamsley for Harris’ attendance and from Harris himself and the Joyce Family Foundation. They argue the school has not taken any meaningful action to stand by its commitment towards reconciliation, equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility.
The protestors are also calling for the school’s library to be renamed immediately and seeking a public commitment from the school to fund an Indigenous student union and remove Harris’s honorary degree from the university.
“Now is not the time for conversation. It’s time to act,” Dokis said.
A third-party audit being conducted by ParriagGroup is currently underway to look at the school’s level of inclusivity and accessibility on campus. A final report is expected to be sent to the school sometime during the summer.
“We will look at those recommendations and bring them forward to the board of governors for approval and we will be accountable for carrying out these actions,” Wamsley said speaking with CTV News on Thursday, while admitting that more can be done on university and college campuses across Canada to better recognize Indigenous truth and reconciliation.
“I think we’ve made great advancements with respect to trying to understand the issues,” he said.
“We have a strategic plan that’s very responsive.”
Sego noted that it is important to have outspoken Indigenous voices on campus.
“We have to have Indigenous perspectives with diversity,” she said.
Harris responds
In a statement issued to CTV News on Thursday afternoon, Harris wrote that the interaction “took me by surprise, as she approached me as I was leaving.”
The statement reads, in part:
“I find it unfortunate that she was left with an unfavourable impression. Since the 1990s, significant progress has been made on the path towards reconciliation, and I fully support those efforts towards building a better, more inclusive future for all Indigenous communities.”
The university confirmed with CTV News that an investigation into the incident is now underway.
