An initiative by Social Studies 9 students, students at Dr. Charles Best Secondary School in Coquitlam to get the name of Dewdney Trunk Road changed has prompted a Port Moody councillor to call for the stretch of the thoroughfare that runs through that city be changed as well.
Coun. Amy Lubik says renaming the road would signal the city’s commitment to reconciliation.
In a report to be presented to council on Tuesday (Feb. 22), Lubik said Port Moody needs to be a leader in the reconciliation process with First Nations communities.
Last February, council approved the creation of a task force comprised of Indigenous, First Nations, Inuit and Métis community members to review various initiatives to address reconciliation efforts in the city as well as provide further ideas. Councillors also committed to a blanket exercise to gain a better understanding of Indigenous history and the First Nations’ experience.
The city has also been supportive of a Welcome Post project that features five Coast Salish house posts erected along a portion of Shoreline trail.
At the time, Lubik suggested a review of street names in Port Moody should be considered as well, as some of those names honour pioneers involved in colonizing First Nations.
Dewdney Trunk Road, which runs parallel to the Lougheed Highway through Port Moody and Coquitlam, then picks up again in Pitt Meadows to Mission, is named after Edgar Dewdney, a government official in charge of Indian Affairs and the Lieutenant Governor of the Northwest Territories, who withheld food to quell dissent from various First Nations’ chiefs.
His policy is believed to have resulted in the deaths of 330 band members of the Cowessess First Nation in Cypress Hills, Sask.
Last January, that history prompted the Grade 9 high school students to begin a campaign urging government officials to remove Dewdney’s name from streets. They wrote letters asking the street be given a new name that represents the community or honours the Kwikwetlem First Nation.
In her report, Lubik said she’s hoping council will support a staff initiative to reach out to the other communities through which Dewdney Trunk Road passes and begin a coordinated process for renaming it that also involves First Nations’ communities.
- with a file from Kyle Balzer, Tri-City News
