‘Deeply disrespectful’: Motion to rename Winnipeg park withdrawn after MMF complaint

City councillors withdraw proposal to rename Carriere Park after outcry from MMF.

Two Winnipeg city councillors will now withdraw their motion to rename a city park following criticism from the great-grandson of the green space’s current namesake.

Couns. Brian Mayes (St. Vital) and Matt Allard (St. Boniface) had proposed renaming Carriere Avenue Park after James Peebles - a Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist born in Manitoba.

The move drew ire from the Manitoba Métis Federation and Andrew Carrier, the great-grandson of André Carriere, who the park is currently named after.

Carrier said the park was opened only a year ago, built on his great-grandfather’s farmland which he was forcibly removed from during the Reign of Terror – a period of extreme violence and persecution of the Métis.

“While this decision does a disservice to my own family’s history, it is also deeply disrespectful to the history of the Red River Métis, which it seems is once again at risk of erasure,” Carrier wrote in a statement on Monday.

He called for the mayor and council to stop the motion from passing, noting it was slated to go for a council vote days before the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

Hours after Carrier’s statement, Mayes told CTV News he and Allard would withdraw the motion.

“Both councillors learned last night that the Manitoba Métis Federation had concerns about renaming of the park,” Mayes said in an email.

“The councillors had created the park in 2024, stopping the proposed sale of city green space and instead expending ward funds to create a new park, which city staff gave the name of adjacent Carriere Avenue.”

Instead, Mayes said he and Allard will move to name a new outdoor classroom in St. George Park for Peebles.

- With files from CTV’s Jeff Keele and Jon Hendricks