Beck: Canada is haunted by problematic place names, but we have the power to change that

2024/01/11 Leave a comment

Haunted? Really? Virtually any other issue is far more important to the day to day lives of Canadians, whatever their origins or ancestry:

What’s next is in our hands. As citizens, we must demand that our municipalities implement more inclusive naming policies. If there are names in your community that you find objectionable, search for your municipality’s place-name policy in our database. If there is no policy, send your councillor or alderperson a link to our report and ask them to lobby for the adoption of one. Reach out to your child’s teacher and suggest they undertake a class project through which more inclusive names can be researched and proposed to your municipality.

Municipalities have significant latitude when it comes to implementing policy and determining how places within their jurisdictions are named. The Dundases, Ryersons and Macdonalds of Canada are rightfully becoming unmoored from the landscape. For those who worry we will forget lessons from the past, look to Germany and Spain – their landscapes have been cleansed of names associated with past dictators, yet the history of what happened there has not vanished from public consciousness.

Source: Canada is haunted by problematic place names, but we have the power to change that

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

Quebec considering removing N-word from 11 place names

2015/08/10 Leave a comment

Hard to justify retaining the names, just as hard as it is justifying flying the Confederate flag:

A stretch of the Gatineau River that has officially been called Nigger Rapids for decades could be renamed — along with 10 other sites in Quebec whose names include the racial slur.

But the provincial body that manages Quebec’s place names says there has been little public pressure to rename the sites.

The rapids are located in the municipality of Bouchette about 120 kilometres north of Ottawa. They were named in memory of a black couple who drowned there in the early 1900s, said Jean-Pierre LeBlanc, spokesman for the Quebec Toponymy Commission.

After decades of being known by their informal name by the locals, the commission officially recognized the name in 1983.

“It was meant to describe the people who died,” LeBlanc said. “There was no pejorative connotation then as there is now.”

LeBlanc said that no formal request by residents has been made to change the name of the rapids but that the commission is considering whether it should rename all 11 sites that include the racial slur.

Claire Hamel, who lives near the rapids, said the official name is not a source of controversy among locals.

“Nobody talks about this,” she said. “It’s the name, that’s it. Like Bouchette, like Maniwaki, like Ottawa.”

Bouchette Mayor Réjean Major told Radio-Canada he has no intention of asking the commission to change the name of the rapids.

Changing an official name is a lengthy process that requires public consultation, LeBlanc said.

“These are names that date back a long time,” he said.

“Some people want to keep the names. They say that it’s a witness of the past. It shows the history of black people in Quebec and how it was at that time. Others say the names are no longer fit.”

The commission has recognized six place names that include the N-word in English and five that include the word nègre, which in French can mean both Negro and the N-word.

Quebec considering removing N-word from 11 place names – Ottawa – CBC News.

Filed under Racism Tagged with ,