Winnipeg committee votes on 1972 plane crash memorial

A key vote at Winnipeg City Hall this week will determine whether a memorial to the young victims of the devastating plane crash in St. James 52 years ago is one step closer to reality.

The council's executive policy committee will vote Wednesday on a proposal to erect a memorial to the June 24, 1972, Linwood Street disaster, in which eight schoolchildren were taken home from schools in Stonewall and Portage la Prairie to the Buniboni Cree Nation (formerly known as Oxford). House).

Students Margaret Robinson, Mary Rita Canada, Ethel Greaves, Rosalie Balfour, Wilkie Muskego, Iona Winusk and siblings Roy and Deborah Sinclair, along with pilot Scott Coughlin, all died, according to the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada.

The museum was a major supporter of the memorial, which is made of polished granite and bears the names of the victims.

It will be placed at the commemorative site on the Yellow Ribbon Greenway trail near Linwood Street and Silver Avenue, not far from the crash site.

If approved, the city will contribute up to $5,000 in additional installation costs. The museum said it would tap into the late Queen's Platinum Jubilee Fund to pay for the memorial. Funds will be used to promote reconciliation in Manitoba.

“Part of Winnipeg's Collective History”

A report to the EPC by Cecil Swainson, the city's Indigenous Relations Manager, recommends anchoring the memorial as a major educational opportunity for Winnipeggers.

“This plane crash and the deaths of the children on board is the most devastating event in the history of Winnipeg in our city. It is also another tragedy caused by the harmful legacy of the school system,” the report said.

“Airplanes were often the main means of transport to some boarding schools, especially in the North. In many indigenous communities, the arrival of the plane meant children were separated from their families.

“The new memorial site and monument will ensure that the names of these children and the devastating effects of residential schools are remembered as part of Winnipeg's collective history.”

The Aviation Museum is also working with the Bunibonibee Cree Nation to establish a memorial in that community.

If the EPC approves the plan, it will go to the council for a final vote at the end of May.

Mayor Scott Gillingham, formerly a St James councilor and now chairman of the EPC, expressed his support for the previous memorial plans.