Memorable Manitobans: Oscar George Blackburn (1912-2007)

Educator, businessman, civil servant.

Born at Montreal, Quebec on 2 April 1912, he was educated in Quebec and Alberta, after which he worked on his stepfather’s farm in the Peace River area. His first paying job was as the first schoolteacher at South Indian Lake. After a few years, he opened a store where he traded for fish and furs caught by local residents, and later worked as a community development officer for the federal government, involved in negotiations over flooding caused by hydroelectric power production. After retirement, he worked for several years in Thompson before moving to Stonewall where he died on 2 March 2007. He was commemorated by Oscar Blackburn School at South Indian Lake, opened in 1975, until the name was removed in 2021 over concerns about his role in the residential school program.

Sources:

“Trappers, fishermen watch as S. Indian centre opened,” Winnipeg Free Press, 6 December 1975, page 76.

Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 5 March 2007, page 18.

Winnipeg estate file PR07-01-75296, Archives of Manitoba.

School in northern Manitoba to change name due to residential school connection,” CTV News, 2 June 2021.

This page was prepared by Nathan Kramer and Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 3 June 2021

Memorable Manitobans

Memorable Manitobans

This is a collection of noteworthy Manitobans from the past, compiled by the Manitoba Historical Society. We acknowledge that the collection contains both reputable and disreputable people. All are worth remembering as a lesson to future generations.

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