Member of Nipissing University Board of Governors resigns

By Kelly Anne Smith

NORTH BAY—Maurice Switzer has stepped away from the Board of Governors of Nipissing University, pointing to a conflict of interest. Switzer, however, will stay on as Chair of the Nipissing University Indigenous Council on Education (NUICE).

Switzer of Mississaugas of Alderville First Nation has been publisher and editor of five Canadian daily newspapers and communications director for the Assembly of First Nations and Anishinabek Nation. He is the president of the board of the North Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre and sits on the board of the North Bay-Parry Sound Health Unit.

Switzer says his role on NUICE is to make the Nipissing University campus a welcoming environment for Indigenous students and includes ensuring an appropriate curriculum. He says there were 160 Indigenous students this year.

Switzer adds that Nipissing University President Kevin Wamsley had heard early in his post about the concerns with the naming of the library after former Premier of Ontario Mike Harris.

“And that that was a sore spot; that this wasn’t going to go away.”

NUICE is now refraining from meeting in the Treaty Learning Centre situated in the library.

“NUICE had about four meetings a year with members from our communities…Temagami First Nation, Dokis First Nation, Nipissing First Nation, and even First Nations in the province of Quebec. But we had been having our meetings in the Treaty Learning Centre in the library. The learning library that has the Harris name on the front of it. And we decided some months ago to stop meeting there because that issue kept coming up. We had people saying, ‘If you’re so against the naming of the library, why are you meeting in here?’ So, we moved.”

An interaction at the Donor Social Event on March 20 at Nipissing University’s Student Centre has also left Switzer feeling conflicted.

“It was a very generous donation, but we were all literally shocked to hear that the money would be presented by one of their trustees that happened to be Mr. Harris.”

NUICE members voiced concerns to the board, says Switzer.

“We strongly felt that was another example of Harris using other people’s money to try to buy himself a legacy on that campus,” he explains. “I had asked the president and the board chair months ago, ‘Please go to the Schulich Foundation, the family that gave the money for the library, and explain to them why this concern exists. Maybe they have never heard it. Maybe they didn’t know about Ipperwash. Maybe they didn’t know that the man they wanted to name a brand-new library after had been summoned to a public inquiry to give testimony as to why he was involved in what became a tragedy on Sept 6, 1995, when Anthony Dudley George, at the age of 38, was shot and killed by a sniper. He was an unarmed land defender at Kettle and Stoney Point in the Ipperwash tragedy and the former provincial park there.'”

Switzer says Harris has never shown remorse for George’s death.

“I thought of a word for this. It’s called Mikewashing. This is Mikewashing; it’s an attempt to remove from the public eye, memory of some severely drastic actions.”

Maurice Switzer attended the Ipperwash commission when Harris testified and says one of the conclusions was that Dudley George would not have died were it not for the atmosphere that was created by former premier Harris.

“I’ve written before that Harris has blood on his political legacy. He has blood on his hands. Has he ever at any time attempted to speak to Dudley George’s family? To speak to people and say, ‘Look, I accept the findings of the Ipperwash Inquiry and it’s bad that this death happened’.”

Switzer declares that it’s like rubbing salt in those wounds when Indigenous people see that Harris is given a prominent position on campus.

“And then, the day he was there to present somebody else’s money, $2M, he had an encounter with a First Nation student who was receiving an award that day for being a student activist. And she [recognized] him. She was shocked to see him. Why would that person be on that campus? As an Indigenous person, she was hurt and offended. She tried to speak with him… The Ipperwash Inquiry found that yes, indeed they would believe the testimony of his attorney general, Charles Harnick, who said Mr. Harris, when he heard about the land defenders in Ipperwash said, ‘I just want the f*****g Indians out of the park.’ And the student mentioned that to him. And he said, ‘Well they were in the park.’… As the chair of NUICE, my job is to oversee a process that makes Indigenous students feel welcome on the campus. That’s a conflict of interest to me.”

Switzer suggests Nipissing University’s gifting and naming policies change.

“Nipissing has been in precarious financial situations. I applaud their desire to get money from different sources. There are options for them. For example, I suggested to the president that they could change their naming policy, their gifting policy, so that the university reserves the right to decide who physically gives the donation. We could still take money from people like The Joyce Foundation, but not have someone who has caused such harm and offence to the university’s reputation.”

That’s what led Switzer to his state of discomfort when sitting on Nipissing University’s board he says.

“On one hand, I’m supposed to make the campus welcoming for Indigenous students. And on the other hand, being a part of a body of the organization that accepts that money on those conditions. I can’t do that,” he explains. “Based on her words, he said they were in the park. But when he walked away from her, apparently, he brushed past her…She started the conversation quite pleasantly. She thanked him for, in some way, supporting the university.”

Switzer says the university has fiscal challenges. He’s calling out Ontario and the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, Vic Fedeli to assist Nipissing University.

“They have been short-changed out of the regular portion of the Northern Grant. They have been short-changed out of their rightful entitlement of having a faculty of education. The figures show that short-changing has amounted to about $15M. Mr. Fedeli is a member of Cabinet of the government that has not listened very well to the university’s expression of dire financial concerns. If Mr. Fedeli had done his job as the top salesman for North Bay, the university might be in a position where they could say no to someone who is giving money and when being asked to accept it out of such dubious hands. Maybe they would be in a position where they could say, ‘I’m sorry, we can’t enter those terms because that would be disrespectful to our Indigenous community partners.’ These things are all connected, if Mr. Fedeli really did have the best interests of the university at heart. He must think it’s important or he wouldn’t have donated in his father’s name (Vittorio Fedeli Business Centre). It would be wonderful if he could help the university get funding so they could be more fussy, more choosy about who they had to accept money from.”

Switzer says Nipissing University Kevin Wamsley admits he forgot to tell the students the former premier Harris was making a presentation.

“That was an oversight. He did give some of us a heads up on NUICE. The very fact that they tried to keep under wraps, you know, the announcement, shows that somehow, they didn’t think it was right. If you thought it was okay for Mike Harris to give a cheque for $2M, why wouldn’t you make a big press release about it?”

Maurice Switzer has been writing about the Ipperwash Crisis and the Ipperwash Inquiry for nearly 30 years.

“Every year since, I have written at least one article usually close to the anniversary, September 6, 1995. It’s published somewhere, wherever I am, usually the Anishinabek News prints it and it gets into the North Bay Nugget… And I have met and talked to the members of Dudley George’s family. His sister Caroline, his brother Pierre, who were in the car taking him to the hospital in Strathroy that night.”

Switzer talks of the importance of the Ippewash tragedy to him.

“I have visited the sight when the government admitted they had wrongfully not returned land that was expropriated for a military base during the Second World War. It means a lot to me,” he expresses. “It means a lot when any Indigenous person is killed. And we are more likely to be killed by police than any other segment of society. I don’t think people understand the gravity of this. Amnesty International actually in a press release described the killing of Dudley George as extrajudicial execution. That’s a political murder.”

Switzer points to education to inform everyone in the university community.

“When I was chosen to be the chair (of NUICE), one of my goals was that every single person on this campus, I said from the janitor to the president, that includes the board, should have Indigenous learning. And part of that learning is not just the negative stuff that has happened, but is all about contributions that Indigenous peoples continue to make in this country. I was asked to do a presentation to the board on Treaties two years ago that I was glad to do. I had board members coming up afterwards saying, ‘I never knew about that.’ It’s an educational institution and they should be doing everything they can to make sure that everybody on that campus knows about not just Canada’s past, but about it’s present and it’s future.”

Student Cheyenne Sago has said she learned of the Ipperwash tragedy in an Indigenous Studies class at Nipissing University. Switzer himself has talked about Ipperwash in Indigenous Studies classes. Elected to another three-year term to chair NUICE, Switzer says he’ll continue to make Nipissing University a welcoming place for Indigenous students.

In his resignation letter, Switzer says health is about more than economic health. It’s about respect for everybody on that campus.

“So, we are going to see what comes out of this DUI audit that’s being done. They also have an Indigenous component to that.”