Susan Chief was eager to cast her vote in the Oct. 3 Manitoba election but she stopped in her tracks when she approached the mobile ballot set up at KeKiNan Centre, a seniors’ home where most of the 58 residents survived day school or residential school.
The Elections Manitoba worker there to take her ballot was in a nun’s habit — like those who worked at the Duck Bay residential school she attended as a child.
“She was dressed in a long black robe with the white (headband) — everything the way they were in the ’60s,” Chief said. “She had a big cross (necklace) hanging down and a smaller cross — everything except the yard stick.”
Resident Florence Sanderson was appalled when she looked in the multipurpose room that served as a voting booth that day.
“When I saw that lady I wondered how I would look to grab her and throw her out,” said Sanderson, originally from Obashkodeyaang (Lake St. Martin) First Nation. “What an insult. It took all the strength in the world to come in here and vote.”
The habit-wearing elections worker was at KeKiNan for five hours says Andy Wood, elders’ resource coordinator at the center, quietly doing her job but just her presence was upsetting to residents.
“It felt very reminiscent to everyone here who voted and at least one person decided to not even vote because of it. It was very upsetting and traumatizing,” Wood said.
He contacted Elections Manitoba quickly that day and within 15 minutes, had an email apology.
But that’s not enough for Chief and Sanderson. They and others demanded Elections Manitoba come in person to explain how this happened.
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“That’s only words — it doesn’t mean anything. It’s just BS and it never should have happened in the first place,” said a KeKiNan resident named Liz, who asked her last name not be used.
Elections Manitoba agrees.
Spokesman Mike Ambrose said 7,000 people worked on the election and it was “not an appropriate assignment” to send a nun to a home with residential school survivors.
“We sincerely regret that this occurred,” Ambrose said. “We have reached out to the community to listen and learn so that we can do better in the future.”
Elections Manitoba officials were meeting Friday with KeKiNan residents.
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