Renaming and Reconciling

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“Abinojii Mikanah” (A-bin-oh-gee Mee-kin-ah).

If you’ve driven in the southern part of Winnipeg, you’ve undoubtedly seen signs displaying the new name of what was formerly known as Bishop Grandin Boulevard. The process to rename the road began in June 2021, with the signage being completed three years later in June of 2024.

Abinojii Mikanah means “Child’s Way/Road” in Anishinaabemowin, sometimes called Ojibwe. It replaces “Bishop Grandin,” which was named after Bishop Vital-Justin Grandin, an architect of the residential school system in the 1880s who was commemorated with the street named in his honour in 1971.

Renaming streets, parks, and other monuments across Canada is part of a larger movement toward reconciliation — one that has slowly been happening over the past couple decades. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC), which was established in 2007, seeks to “facilitate reconciliation among former [residential school] students, their families, their communities and all Canadians.” Alongside this, former Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued an apology on behalf of Canada to former residential school students in 2008.

Though the TRC moved the country forward towards reconciliation, there are still remnants of the past that many take issue with. On Canada Day in 2021, protestors toppled a statue of Queen Victoria at the Manitoba Legislative Building. In the years to follow, there would be increasingly more conversations about the infrastructure that represents Canada’s colonialism.

Alongside the increase in acts of reconciliation was the creation of the Welcoming Winnipeg initiative. The City of Winnipeg formed a committee of experts and activists that would accept requests to rename parks and historical markers, and would help rename streets like Abinojii Mikanah.

While many people, like those who signed a petition to rename Cecil Rhodes School in 2020, are in favour of these acts of reconciliation, others have spoken against renaming streets or other landmarks for various reasons.

A CBC article from August 2024 took note of hateful comments on a post from the City of Winnipeg social media accounts where they requested new name ideas for downtown’s Air Canada Park.

Danielle Carriere, the administrative coordinator for Winnipeg’s Indigenous Relations Division, says public feedback is largely negative and racist.

“Typically the pushback is around Indigenous language names, and it can be really hard to read,” she says. “People can submit things unfiltered, so we definitely read a lot of racist comments.”

A significant amount of the negative feedback comes from racism against Indigenous Peoples. Some backlash is overtly racist and stands against acts of reconciliation, such as residential school denialism. But some people aren’t as outward about it and aren’t cognisant of the importance of renaming.

In a 2019 survey done as part of the Welcoming Winnipeg initiative, 49 per cent of respondents said they don’t agree with renaming and removing historical markers, citing education as a main reason to keep them. Some people might agree that the names being commemorated should not be celebrated, but that it’s part of our historical fabric and shouldn’t be changed.

Others find that Abinojii Mikanah — among other names that come from Indigenous languages — are difficult to pronounce and cause confusion. When the proposed name was announced, people voiced their concerns about pronunciation on social media. 

“For a major route like this, it definitely needs to be something more easier [sic] to pronounce otherwise it will continue to be called Bishop Grandin,” wrote Reddit user djmistral in a top comment on the r/Winnipeg subreddit.

Some people might support renaming places as an act of reconciliation but feel certain names can be too inconvenient. But reconciliation should be “inconvenient” — to make real change, people need to be willing to put in effort.

What Has Been Renamed?

The renaming of streets and landmarks in Winnipeg goes very far back, and patterns of renamings reflect the societal views at the time. According to an article from the Winnipeg Free Press, St. James residents were uncomfortable with the name of Berlin Street, which ran through the neighbourhood in 1917. The connection to Germany during the first World War prompted the city to rename it Lyle Street.

Other renamings have commemorated entertainment and media. In 2007, Arena Road was renamed Milt Stegall Drive, named after a Winnipeg Blue Bombers player. Milt Stegall was deemed worthy of a street name because of his impressive stats in the CFL. It’s a lighthearted example of renaming, but still reflects people’s attitudes and preferences at a specific time in history.

Though it was decided Abinojii Mikanah would be renamed before 2021, that year’s discovery of unmarked graves at the location of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia spurred on a search of other residential school sites, and was a stark reminder to Canada that there was still much of the past to reconcile with, and the renaming was pushed up the priority list. In May 2021, when the news broke, former Winnipeg mayor Brian Bowman posted on Twitter (now X) about expediting the renaming.

Other Winnipeg landmarks have been renamed since then. Among them are Tikina’gaan Park (named after traditional Indigenous baby cradle in Anishinaabemowin), which was previously named after a slur for Indigenous Peoples used by European settlers, and Prairie Sunrise School, which was formerly named Ryerson School after another residential school architect, Egerton Ryerson.

In 2020, petitions to change the name of Cecil Rhodes School, and all place names associated with Garnet Joseph Wolseley, were posted on the website change.org. This coincided with the establishment of the Welcoming Winnipeg Committee and modern place renaming processes. 

As reported by the BBC, Cecil Rhodes was involved in South African apartheid and racial segregation, and infrastructure commemorating him across the world has been heavily criticized. Following the 2020 petition in Winnipeg, Cecil Rhodes School was renamed to Keewatin Prairie Community School — “keewatin” meaning “the land of the northwest wind” in Cree and Anishinaabemowin. Other landmarks across Canada have commemorated Cecil Rhodes, including a sign at a school in Vancouver that was removed in 2019.

Garnet Joseph Wolseley, like Bishop Vital-Justin Grandin, was involved in colonization. He is commemorated by places such as Wolseley School, Wolseley Avenue, and the greater neighbourhood of Wolseley. Of course, the process for renaming streets is more involved than renaming a school — it took four years to complete the renaming process of Abinojii Mikanah — and the city has yet to tackle renaming an entire neighbourhood. In March 2025, five years after the initial petition, the Winnipeg School Division held a survey to finally rename Wolseley School. The street and neighbourhood, however, remain commemorating Wolseley.

The difference in the city’s willingness to rename landmarks is also highlighted in the renaming of Theodore Niizhotay Fontaine Park, formerly Wellington Park. It’s now named after a residential school survivor and Indigenous community advocate, but used to commemorate Arthur Wellington Ross. The renaming request for the park says Ross was a landowner in the Fort Rouge area and acquired his land through abusing the Métis scrip system, which the request says is “associated with Indigenous dispossession.” Yet, Wellington Crescent and Arthur Street are still named after him, and do not have movements from the city to be renamed.

Other cities in Canada have taken measures to rename places as well. A street in Saskatoon named after John A. MacDonald, the first Prime Minister of Canada, was renamed miyo-wâhkôhtowin Road, meaning “having good relations” in Cree. Toronto’s Dundas Street, named after Henry Dundas, who is known for being pro-slavery in the British empire, is also in the process of being renamed by Toronto’s City Council.

Renaming From a Historical Perspective

For many people, Canada’s history is a major reason to not rename landmarks. The concept of preserving history is important to some. In an April 2025 interview with the CBC, Will Goodon, Manitoba Métis Federation minister of housing and Métis identity, argued “it just sort of subtly slides from history and the issues … become forgotten” when talking about Wolseley School’s renaming. In the case of Abinojii Mikanah, Bishop Vital-Justin Grandin’s involvement in creating the residential school system doesn’t change the fact that at one point in time he was a historical figure deemed worthy of being commemorated with a street name, and the renaming could be seen as erasing the history he was involved with.

Others, however, argue against this. One member of the Welcoming Winnipeg Committee, Erin Millions, is a history professor at the University of Winnipeg. She compares the renaming of Abinojii Mikanah to the removal of statues across Canada. Like the toppling of the statue of Queen Victoria at the Manitoba Legislative Building, or the similar toppling of a statue of John A. MacDonald in Montreal, changes to historical commemorations does not mean erasure; it simply means society’s values are changing.

“When you look at the processes of how things are named and why things are named, it often reflects the values of the moment in which people are naming something,” says Millions.

She notes that statues of John A. MacDonald went up at two major time periods — in the 1890s when he died, and around Canada’s 100^th centennial in the 1960s.

“It’s these moments of when the nation comes into question that statues are going up,” she says, referring to the desire to commemorate Canada’s first Prime Minister in moments where it seemed like the values he held — and shaped Canada with during his tenure — could be forgotten or changed. “They’re not going up to tell people to learn history from these statues. They’re being put in place because they reflect values that some people hold important in that moment.”

Bishop Grandin Boulevard was named in 1978 after many other names commemorating Grandin. Rue Grandin Street was established in 1876, and the St. Vital neighbourhood was also named after him. The boulevard, which is a corridor between Winnipeg’s St. Vital and Fort Garry areas, was given the name Bishop Grandin Boulevard because it was deemed “most appropriate from an historical point of view,” as said in a Winnipeg City Council meeting in 1978.

1978 predates the last residential school closing — in fact, 28 residential schools were still operating as of 1979 — and many people viewed Grandin positively. A 1979 piece from the Manitoba Historical Society’s Manitoba Pageant magazine memorializes Grandin, saying he “played a significant role in the development of the northwest.”

Over thirty years later, society’s views have changed, and people are committed to reconciliation. Millions recognizes and appreciates society’s change and growth, and doesn’t view these changes as history being erased.  

“As a historian, just because statues of John A. MacDonald are being removed, doesn’t mean I stop teaching about John A. MacDonald in my classroom. Do I teach about his program to unify Canada as a nation? Yes. Do I also teach about his role in colonialism and residential schools? Also yes.”

Millions says the practice of looking at as many perspectives as possible in history is important, but it’s not something that many people think about and is where some of the backlash to name changes may come from.

“People have this idea that history is neutral. But if you’re doing history well, you’re looking at all viewpoints and perspectives and incorporating that into telling the best, most fulsome history that you can — and historians in the past didn’t do that.”

Bishop Grandin Boulevard’s naming happened while residential schools were still operating. Historians, the people in government, and the people in charge of infrastructure at the time were still extremely Eurocentric and certainly not considering Indigenous perspectives.

“What renaming does is it helps create more inclusive and welcoming spaces for people whose histories haven’t been reflected in public naming and public commemoration,” Millions says.

Not only does Millions reject the idea that renaming is erasing history, but she sees renaming as an opportunity for education.

“I would guess most Winnipeggers drove down Bishop Grandin Boulevard and never gave a thought about what the name meant. But through the publicity and educational efforts around the renaming, people have now learned a little bit more about residential school history than they knew before.”

Renaming from a Linguistic Perspective

Some people may not outwardly say they oppose the removal of names that represent colonialism, but they feel like changing it to a name from an Indigenous language is too confusing to pronounce and spell.

Nicole Rosen, a linguistics professor at the University of Manitoba, wrote a piece for The Conversation, which publishes pieces written by academics and researchers, on Abinojii Mikanah’s linguistic pushback. The article breaks down why people might struggle using names in Indigenous languages. Differing language rules, like the double “ii” in “Abinojii,” are unfamiliar to English speakers and seen by some as inconvenient.

Rosen writes that “it may make those uncertain about changing power structures uncomfortable,” referring to the changes in society’s views and how history is told.

Rosen says people’s discomfort with the name being in Anishinaabemowin may come from the way Indigenous Peoples are perceived. As marginalized groups, Indigenous Peoples and their languages are often subject to negative perceptions. 

“If people don’t like this change, they can latch on to language as a reason,” she says. “People take their associations with certain people and attach that to their language.”

With the way society has changed to be more focused on reconciliation efforts, it’s less acceptable for people to be outwardly opposed to them. Instead, people complain about language, which can act as a façade.

“It’s often said that languages are one of the last bastions of acceptable prejudice,” Rosen says. “People don’t necessarily realize they’re doing it, because we’re taught that there’s a correct way to speak, even though that’s not true. Language is still a way you can insult a person by skirting around the issue and not being overtly discriminatory.”

In addition to using language as a vessel for discriminatory viewpoints, some people oppose the words from Indigenous languages chosen for new names because they’re difficult for English speakers to pronounce.

Rosen compares Abinojii Mikanah and other landmarks named in Indigenous languages to the many French names in Winnipeg. Des Meurons Street and Lagimodière Boulevard are two street names that may be difficult to pronounce for non-French speakers, but people don’t object to the existence of these names despite them being unfamiliar.

Often, when people say these French names, they will mispronounce them or shorten them to something that is easier to say. The mispronunciations and shortened versions of these names are common vernacular among Winnipeggers, but for names in Indigenous languages, some people push back on them entirely.

Others are fine with these new names existing, but they avoid saying them and don’t put in the effort to learn how to say them (even if they get it wrong or use a shortened version) because they fear being wrong or disrespectful.

Rosen doesn’t blame these people, but says it’s better to try, and maybe make a mistake that can be corrected, instead of avoiding the Indigenous names entirely.

“It would be better to try, but it’s out of a desire to not do harm. For Abinojii Mikanah, once you hear it and say it a bunch of times, it’s actually really easy. It’s okay to feel a bit of discomfort.”

Some of the street names in Winnipeg have shortened forms that people use — for example, Lagimodière Boulevard is commonly referred to as just “Lag.” Even Bishop Grandin Boulevard was often just called “Bishop.” Rosen says this happens in any language, and Abinojii Mikanah is another situation where name shortening can be applied.

“It’s not like this is only an English thing. It’s just a natural way of using language. ‘Abinojii’ is a wonderful word.”

The Road Ahead

Now that Abinojii Mikanah’s renaming process is complete, people are looking to other streets and landmarks that have problematic roots. St. Vital, another area of the city, also shares connections to Bishop Vital-Justin Grandin.

Logistically, renaming an entire area of a city is substantially more costly, difficult, and involved than renaming a school, a park, or a street. The Winnipeg Free Press reported an estimated $211,000 was spent renaming Abinojii Mikanah, and took multiple years from start to finish.

“The process to rename streets is very long and governed by a bylaw process that we follow,” says Danielle Carriere, who works in Winnipeg’s Indigenous Relations Division. “There are a number of steps the city has to take, like changing maps with the province, and legal aspects.”

The Welcoming Winnipeg Committee is mainly focused on renaming parks, though there are many other places and landmarks where the renaming request system and Indigenous-led committee could provide insight and decision making power. However, Carriere says the city hasn’t provided enough resources to the committee or the Indigenous Relations Division, and even just the focus on renaming parks is a struggle.

“When the policy was developed, it was all done with existing resources. We’ve had to carve out human resources to make it happen, and then budgets. It’s been challenging.”

On February 27, 2025, a motion to re-examine the Welcoming Winnipeg policy for proper resource allotment and opportunity for renaming was put forward by City Council, which Carriere is hopeful will enhance the capabilities of the committee and Indigenous Relations Division.

While there are clearly bigger changes the City of Winnipeg can make to improve and expedite the renaming process, it’s important for us to keep our role in mind as well. We can educate ourselves and others and learn how to pronounce new names.

As for pushing for more renamings, particularly for larger streets or neighbourhoods like Wolseley, Carriere says it’s all in the public’s hands.

“It would depend on the community driving that coming together to advocate for that level of change.”

Such major changes will require a lot of work, but show the importance of fighting for and embracing renaming. As our values and relationship with language and culture change, it’s important that the names of places around us change with them. It shows where we are at now, and where we’re moving towards.