2023-12-06

Lunenburg chooses Queen over Cornwallis

LUNENBURG - Elected representatives of this town decided Queen Street will be the new road name to replace the one coined after Halifax's controversial founder Edward Cornwallis.

Queen Street was preferred choice among 35 percent of 324 survey respondents, most of whom were town residents. Town officials planned to have a suite of choices for council's consideration in March but, with hundreds of survey responses to organize and sort, needed more time to review the volume of suggestions.

Council's decision wasn't unanimous; the Queen Street motion narrowly passed by a 4-3 margin.

Mayor Jamie Myra and councillors Peter Mosher, Jenni Birtles and Stephen Ernst voted in support, while Deputy Mayor Ed Halverson and councillors Melissa Duggan and Susan Sanford were against the motion.

in the context of removing Cornwallis's name from a street in the spirit of Indigenous reconciliation, Halverson struggled with the consideration of Queen Street.

"I can't reconcile naming a street where we want to remove the name of somebody who was representative of the Crown for tremendous acts and then proposing to rename it, again, after the very Crown that he was representing," he told his civic government colleagues during the Nov. 28 council meeting when the decision was ratified. "It makes no sense."

Broadcasts of open council sessions and associated meeting documents are available online.

Choosing Queen Street is "a slap in the face" to Indigenous Peoples, Halverson suggested.

"If you can explain to a Grade 8 class in Eskasoni why it's appropriate to rename Cornwallis Street Queens Street, then we can vote for it and, if you can do that, in all honesty, and hold your head up, I don't think we can."

LighthouseNOW reached out to the Eskasoni Mi'kmaw Nation for comment for this story but didn't get a response in time for publication.

In late 2022, town council in Lunenburg signalled the name Cornwallis would disappear from road signs but declined to settle on a new marker until the public was appropriately consulted.

For years, there have been calls to have Cornwallis's name removed from monuments, rivers, schools and other fixtures in various communities because he called for a bounty on Mi'kmaq scalps soon after his mid-1700s entrance into Chebucto Harbour.

In Lunenburg, the town's anti-racism committee recommended Samqwan Street, the Mi'kmaw word for water, which was chosen "to represent the street's connection to the back and front harbours, and the community's overall ties to water," a previous report to council indicated.

While not saying Queen Street was an appropriate choice, Duggan, who chaired the committee, felt it needed to be included in the conversation. She hoped to have a chance to put forward a motion in support of Samqwan Street but didn't get the chance when the Queen Street motion passed.

Town chief administrator Jamie Doyle said council wasn't bound by the committee's recommendations and had the option of removing Queen from consideration but that would mean another review of the survey results.

Mosher hesitated in going against information provided by citizens, commenting at one point, "If we didn't want to hear from the public, we shouldn't have asked them, I guess."

Ernst said he wasn't "married" to the idea of Queen Street but indicated, when examining historical context, it was a "more fitting and more apt" when it comes to the settlement of Lunenburg.

Sanford agreed with Halverson's assertion the Queen Street choice is "not appropriate" and is inconsistent with the intent of reconciliation.

Before he dies, Mi'kmaw author and elder Daniel Paul suggested Reconciliation Lane would be a positive and inclusive choice for Lunenburg and "would be most appropriate for a town that has seen many conflicts over the eons that have caused much pain for so many," he said in correspondence to the town.

He said that the name applies greatly to "the coming together ... of the Indigenous peoples of Canada, which was brought to the forefront by the revelations of the horrors perpetuated against helpless First Nations children in Indian residential and Indian day schools across Canada and each and every province."

LighthouseNOW reached out to the Assembly of First Nations and Congress of Aboriginal Peoples for comment for this story but didn't receive a response before publication.

Lunenburg had already re-named two municipal parks. Blockhouse Hill Park became known as Sylvia Park. The new name "was selected in recognition of one of Colonel Creighton's slaves, only known by the name Sylvia, who helped with defence efforts during an invasion of Lunenburg in the 1700s," a previous report to council indicated.

The 250th Anniversary Park also received a new identity, becoming Labrador Park "in recognition of the Labrador family, one of the original Indigenous families of the area," read the same report.

In the summer of 2020, Jessika Hepburn, who is of Black and Jewish descent, filed a petition with the Town of Lunenburg calling for the civic government to retitle Cornwallis and Creighton streets.

Hepburn, who was involved in a South Shore Black, Indigenous and people of colour group that organized advocacy, events and community supports, said the town's choice is sad and disappointing but not surprising.

From watching other communities rename places or streets to "generic" identifiers, she said, it demonstrates a pattern of municipalities side-stepping the intent of such changes, which is to uplift and recognize Indigenous and/or Black history in Nova Scotia.

In June 2022, the Town of Bridgewater pivoted away from the Cornwallis Street, replacing it with Crescent Street, following a year-long public process. Earlier this year, In Shelburne County, Cape Negro became Eel Bay.

It amounts to " marginalization of the very people who are seeking some form of redress," Hepburn said in a phone interview.

A lot of time, energy and money was spent in Lunenburg and it was a missed opportunity at awareness, she added. "It tells me the erasure of Indigenous and African Nova Scotia history in these communities continues and will continue unless there is a concerted, energetic response from the community itself."

Hepburn's 2020 petition indicated Creighton Street in Lunenburg, which has the same name as one of the town's founding fathers who served in Cornwallis' militia, was said to be a slave owner. Lunenburg council has not publicly entertained the idea of changing the name of Creighton Street.