Alexandre-Antonin Taché (1823-1894) National Historic Person
© Bibaud, M. / Library and Archives Canada / PA-074103
Alexandre-Antonin Taché was designated as a national historic person in 1943.
The Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada reviewed this designation in 2024.
Reasons for designation
As a leading Catholic missionary in Rupert’s Land and Western Canada, this Oblate priest arrived in the region in 1845 and guided Catholic missionary expansion and maintenance from Red River (Winnipeg) deep into the Mackenzie drainage basin. Taché was particularly influential as the Bishop of St. Boniface from 1853 and Archbishop of St. Boniface from 1871 to his death in 1894. He was a founder of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste mission at Île-à-la-Crosse in 1846, which for two decades held importance as an administrative centre, communications hub, and transshipment point. As the foremost Catholic leader in the west, Taché oversaw the establishment and administration of a network of missions, day schools, and residential schools in the region which sought to convert and assimilate Indigenous Peoples.
Taché gained major political influence within the Red River Settlement, developing parishes in the Red River area which would conform closely to political boundaries, and advising the Canadians as problems arose during their annexation of the region. Taché helped restore calm during the Red River Resistance (1869–70). His promises that all participants would receive an amnesty from the Dominion Government proved politically untenable, damaging his relationship with the Métis, especially Louis Riel.
Taché was a longstanding proponent of French-Canadian Catholic settlement in the West. He proved influential in securing rights for Catholic and French public education in the Manitoba Act (1870). When these rights were eroded after 1890, Taché resisted with all his means, but ultimately they could not be restored.
Review of designation
The Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada is reviewing designated national historic persons, events and sites for their connection to the history and legacy of the residential school system. This review responds to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action 79, which calls on the federal government to commemorate the history and legacy of residential schools.
Reviews are undertaken on an ongoing basis to ensure that designations reflect current scholarship, shifts in historical understandings, and a range of voices, perspectives and experiences in Canadian society.
In 2024, this designation was reviewed due to colonial assumptions in the commemorative plaque text. The original text, approved in 1977, highlighted Taché’s role in the Catholic Church in the west, in restoring order after the Red River Resistance, and as an architect of the Manitoba Act. The original text did not reference his involvement with Indian Residential Schools in the West.
New reasons for designation were developed that include Taché’s role in the establishment and administration of a network of missions, day schools, and residential schools in the region which sought to convert and assimilate Indigenous Peoples. The original plaque will be removed, and a new plaque will be prepared as time and resources permit.
Source: Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Minutes, December 2023.
The National Program of Historical Commemoration relies on the participation of Canadians in the identification of places, events and persons of national historic significance. Any member of the public can nominate a topic for consideration by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.
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