Nearly a year after city council approved changing the name of O’Grady Road in College Heights to Dakelh Ti, the process to rename the road is still in progress.
On June 13, 2022, city council voted to rename the road named after Bishop John Fergus O'Grady. The renaming came after Lheidli T’enneh Chief Dolleen Logan raised concerns in July 2021 about the city having a road named after the bishop, because of his connection to the residential school system and the Kamloops Residential School in particular.
“We took some time to discuss this with Lheidli T'enneh and will be proceeding with the name change once Council approves the communications plan,” a city spokesperson said in an email on Friday. “Council asked staff to come back to them with a report on how it will be communicated prior to taking any actions, so we will do that in the next couple of months.”
A public notice published by the City of Prince George on Friday shows that O’Grady Road is still the legal name of the street.
In a letter to Prince George city council in July 2021, Logan said the street name is a daily reminder of the abuses suffered by Indigenous children in the residential school system.
“The fact that Bishop (John Fergus) O'Grady who O'Grady Road is named for, played a key role in the administration of residential schools in B.C. while deaths and abuse of children occurred, is reason enough to change the name,” Logan wrote. “His name is synonymous with crimes against indigenous children. Our members and other Indigenous citizens of Prince George are forced to relive residential school trauma every time we shop at the stores in the College Heights area where O'Grady road is located.”
