A longtime Prince George resident, who no longer lives here, keeps in regular contact with me through email about various stories and issues he reads about daily on the Citizen website.
Over the weekend, he sent me this note:
“I just noticed the proposed O Grady name change.
Although I don’t have a pony in this race, I just wonder where this all ends.
Please don’t get me wrong, I feel that certain groups require recognition, however, I wonder who pays the expenses for all the address changes, and what happens to the legal descriptions of properties involved.
I suggest that recognition could be made without renaming streets.
Some day, perhaps, all involved, can realize that the past is the past , and simply start a new chapter in our history.
I suggest closure is highly overrated and usually comes with a price tag or some strings attached.
This is just one man’s opinion.”
I just noticed his nice tip of the hat there to Ben Meisner. Anyhow, here was my response:
“Respectfully, I disagree. The cost is minimal and nobody complained about the cost in 1989 when the name of College Road was changed to O'Grady Road. Nobody is proposing changing the name of all street names but this one had to be done and it was the right thing to do, in light of what we've learned about Bishop O'Grady and the Kamloops Residential School in the last year. Changing the name is the new chapter in history you speak of.”
He replied later in the day:
“Thanks for clarifying , Neil.
I wasn’t considering the residential school issue.
The only problem I have is continually trying to justify or rectify the past.
I don’t have the answer, however, it concerns me that generation after generation on both sides of many issues , the aftermath becomes the issue , and the past seems to be securely and negatively attached to the future.
Keep up the excellent work.”
I answered him early Monday morning:
“As usual, there are multiple perspectives to look at things like renaming roads, schools, parks, etc. Rectifying the past and attaching that past to the future is one way but I choose to look at it through a more positive frame. Going forward, people can look at Dakelh Ti as a celebration of both Prince George's First Nations history, as well as its current and future cultural relevance, without even thinking about Bishop O'Grady or residential schools at all. That's the way visitors (and future residents) will likely see it because they'll presume that was always the name of that road.”
