Two Rams teams drop "Ryerson" name due to residential school ties

Jun 8 2021, 9:05 pm

A pair of Ryerson University sports teams have made changes to their names due to the namesake’s role in Canada’s residential school system.

The newly-renamed Rams women’s hockey and Rams’ women’s basketball have broken away from the “Ryerson” moniker due to Egerton Ryerson’s role as an architect of the residential school system. The institutions were directly responsible for countless deaths, instances of abuse, and otherwise traumatic experiences for Indigenous youth across the country.

The name change is the latest step in an ongoing university-wide discussion in multiple faculties and disciplines regarding the history associated with the Ryerson surname.

“As a team, we stand in solidarity with Indigenous communities to recognize and honour the 215+ innocent, deceased Indigenous children whose remains were discovered at a former residential school in Kamloops, BC,” the women’s hockey team posted in a statement on social media Tuesday.

“We recognize that the history of Canada includes cultural genocide and several forms of abuse towards Indigenous communities.”

 

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A post shared by Rams Women’s Hockey (@ramswhky)

“Given the history of Egerton Ryerson, we want to take action where we can control. Though this is just a starting point, we will now identify all of our women’s hockey platforms as @RamsWHKY,” the statement continued.

“We would like to acknowledge and thank the Rams Women’s Basketball team for spearheading this initiative to raise awareness and drive change.”

“We hope that other Rams student-athletes consider doing the same,” says the women’s basketball post released on June 4.

 

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A post shared by Rams Women’s Basketball (@ramswbb)

Adam LaskarisAdam Laskaris

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