Williams Lake Councillor apologizes for comments made regarding residential schools

WILLIAMS LAKE— A Williams Lake Councillor has issued a an apology after the Williams Lake Indian Band (WLIB) council called for her resignation for comments she made surrounding residential schools.

“I would like to offer my sincere apology for my comments made at the Council meeting on Tuesday, June 16, 2020 and to clarify my position with some context,” read the statement by Councillor Marnie Brenner.

“As an aboriginal woman adopted by a non-aboriginal family in the 1960s, I have my own thoughts about reconciliation and other contemporary Indigenous issues because of my lived experience. I acknowledge my words were poorly chosen and may have come across as insensitive and I apologize to those who thought they were a slight against survivors of residential schools and were hurt by them. This was not my intention. Rather, it was to highlight the importance and value of honest, open dialogue around truth and reconciliation, especially around the many difficult things that aboriginal people face daily. It’s a discussion that I believe needs to continue as we move forward together.”

On the topic of reconciliation, Councillor Marnie Brenner is quoted saying “there are always two sides” and, discussing a residential school at Riske Creek, saying First Nations people were “disappointed that they had to leave residential school because they had a pool there.”