McGill students vote overwhelmingly to change 'Redmen' name in non-binding referendum

The student leading the fight to change McGill University’s controversial sports team nickname says the results of a referendum tabulated on Monday clearly shows the student body is also behind it.

The Student Society of McGill University announced Monday evening that of the more than 27 per cent of electors who voted in the referendum, 78.8 per cent were in favour of the name change and 21 per cent against.

The question was: “Do you endorse the immediate renaming of the ‘Redmen’ name and mandate the SSMU to work towards immediate renaming of the varsity men’s team?”

“This makes it clear that we expect expediency on this issue,” Tomas Jirousek said.

The next step in the effort to have the name changed, he explained, is to release a series of letters of support, including one signed by more than 100 faculty members as well as letters from First Nations community leaders in various parts of Canada. Jirousek argued that, throughout the university’s history, it’s been used to dehumanize Indigenous people.

He also said the fight goes well beyond McGill’s boundaries.

“Athletes who want to keep the name, when they leave McGill they can choose to leave it behind or not. But for us, we carry this burden our whole lives. Some people will only ever see us as less than because of our identity,” said Jirousek, who comes from Blackfoot territory in Alberta.

Referring to an Indigenous person as a “red man” is widely considered a slur and, for people like Jirousek, it is a slap in the face to have to wear that name when representing McGill in competition.

Jirousek says he’s withstood a series of personal attacks and that he’s been the target of a whisper campaign from his political opponents.

“They’re saying that I’m launching an attack on the McGill family and spreading misinformation about me,” said Jirousek, a varsity rower at McGill. “There’s an effort to silence and minimize Indigenous voices on this issue. It’s appalling.”

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The university’s nickname emerged in the 1920s as a reference to the school’s signature colour and Celtic roots.

But Redmen teams soon began appropriating tomahawks, and headdresses to associate the name with Indigenous peoples. In the 1960s, some McGill teams were called “Squaws” — a slur that targets Indigenous women.

Those names are no longer used and the Indigenous symbolism was removed from logos in 1990.

Despite its controversial past, supporters of the Redmen name say the school has taken the appropriate measures to erase its offending elements. And some arguing to keep the nickname are Indigenous alumni of the school.

Francis Verreault-Paul, an Innu man who played hockey at McGill, wrote that he’s proud to have been a part of the “Redmen family.”

“Respect was always front and centre,” wrote Verreault-Paul, in a letter to the Montreal Gazette. “I always wore the uniform with enormous pride.”

Verreault-Paul has become the face of a Facebook campaign supporting the Redmen. The group Keep the McGill Redmen name has his photo as its profile picture and has reposted letters he wrote in the Montreal Gazette and La Presse.

The Facebook group’s administrator did not respond to requests for an interview.

For many Indigenous students at McGill, there’s no ambiguity; the name is deeply problematic.

“My dad almost didn’t let me come (to McGill) because of it,” said Catie Galbraith, a student from the Chickasaw nation, in an online post. “He said, ‘If this is the name of the university (team), how do you expect them to respect you?’”

Galbraith was one of the students who protested the Redmen name during a rally on the McGill grounds two weeks ago. They were joined by professors and local activists.

The referendum’s high turnout shows students are engaged with the issue, said SSMU president Tre Mansdoerfer. “Those are big numbers for us,” Mansdoerfer said in interview before the results were known.

“I would say a lot of people are engaging in healthy debate but there are some who aren’t being very respectful. But it’s hard for me to say because I’m not Indigenous.”

For Jirousek, non-Indigenous athletes using a name that demeans people like him is a painful reminder of his own past.

Back in high school, white students he knew would host “cowboys and Indians” parties where they dressed up in red face and played up the worst stereotypes about Indigenous people.

“It shows how someone else can just take your identity and transform it into something so ugly,” said Jirousek. “It’s about who gets to control the name, who gets to use it and, right now, it’s non-Indigenous people.

“Right now, what I see is an opportunity for education. And if 10 or 15 or 20 per cent of students voted to keep the name, I won’t stop until I’ve reached out and explained our side of this.”

ccurtis@postmedia.com

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