Change urged to Victoria street named for 'racist' figure

A growingmovement to banish place names that honour a colonial politician with a racist legacy focused this week on a leafy Victoria street

The Indigenous Solidarity Working Group organized a public meeting Tuesday to discuss whether Trutch Street, in the Fairfield neighbourhood, should be renamed.

Joseph Trutch, B.C.'s first lieutenant-governor,has become a symbol of discrimination against First Nations. He was the province's chief commissioner of land and works when hedrastically reducedthe size of First Nations reserve lands inthe 19th century.

"There's also a number of comments which are part of the public record, suggesting fairlydiscriminatory commentstowardsFirst Nations peoplewhich today we would consider to be racist attitudes," Victoria Coun. Ben Isitttold On the Island host GregorCraigie.

Last June,the University of Victoria's board of governors decidedto dropTrutch'sname from one of its residence buildings. Since then, Isitt said,calls have increased for the City of Victoria to follow suit.

Reuben Rose-Redwood, an associate professor in the department of geography at the University of Victoriaand co-organizer of the meeting, said now is the time to renameTrutchStreet, both in Victoria and in Vancouver.

Rose-Redwood, who islead editor of the recent book, The Political Life of Urban Streetscapes: Naming, Politics, and Place,said theUVicdecision createdmomentum for removing all place name references to the colonial politician.

Trutchis also the name of a ghost town near the Alaska HIghway in northeasternB.C.

Third-year Indigenous studies student Lisa Schnitzlerlaunched the petitionthat led the UVicboard of governors to rename the Trutchbuilding in 2017.

Schnitzler was inspired to take action after she was challenged by a teaching assistant in a tutorial class to identify ways to advance reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.

"I mentioned that the building I lived in was named after Joseph Trutch," Shnitzlersaid in an interview. "And my TA said, 'What are you going to do about it?'"

Schnitzlersaid she isn'tdirectly involved in thenew effort to wipe Trutch'sname from Victoria's street map.

For now, she said she wouldlimither activism to speakingat the Tuesday event along withJoan Morris, an elder from the Songhees Nation, and George Abbott, a former B.C. cabinet minister and current doctoral candidate in political science at UVic.

If TrutchStreet is eventually renamed,Isittpredicted more proposals for changes elsewhere will follow.

Sutlej, Denmanstreets next?

He said any proposals would be considered by the City of Victoria's advisory board with the Songhees and EsquimaltFirst Nations. But he suggested a couple of otherstreet names are 'low-hanging fruit."

"Sutlej Street [in the Cook Street Village neighbourhood]was a gunship that levelled a dozen indigenous villages," Isitt said. "The captain of that ship was Admiral Denman (a streetin Fernwood)."

The question of how far to go in reconciling past wrongs through name changes will be a discussion for the community, he said.

With files from Michael Tymchuk and CBCRadio One's On the Island.