National Post (National Edition)
Promise turns to insult for family
Montreal changes plan to honour piano legend
MONTREAL • When Daisy Peterson Sweeney died last August at 97, then Montreal mayor Denis Coderre promised to name a street after the piano teacher who nurtured jazz greats like her brother, Oscar Peterson, and Oliver Jones.
But a year later, the promised honour has turned into an insult, members of the Peterson-sweeney family say.
In May, the city of Montreal informed the family that instead of a street, GuyPaxton Park, a 25-metre-by50-metre green space at Guy and Paxton Sts. in Little Burgundy, would be renamed after Sweeney.
“There was no discussion. It was just, you have been notified that this is happening,” said Celine Peterson, 27, the daughter of Oscar, in an interview from Toronto.
“It looks like a dog run,” she said. “It’s just unacceptable. When we were given the details of the so-called park, we realized that it was nothing more than a little patch of grass behind somebody’s yard.”
After three months with no response to their objections from the city, family members are frustrated and disappointed, she said.
“Daisy Peterson Sweeney is such an important part of Canadian music history and Montreal,” Peterson said.
“It’s very frustrating to see she’s being disrespected in this way.”
Sweeney taught classical piano to generations of children at the Negro Community Centre in Little Burgundy, instilling in them her philosophy of exceeding expectations.
Oscar credited his sister with giving him “the one thing that has steadfastly sustained me throughout my career: dedication.”
Sweeney also co-founded the Montreal Black Community Youth Choir, which evolved into the famed Jubilation Gospel Choir under Trevor Payne.
In 1987, Laurentian University recognized her inspirational impact on local youth by awarding her an honorary doctorate. In 2005, a series of gospel concerts marking the 250th anniversary of the Lachine Canal paid tribute to Sweeney, whose former pupils also included pianists Joe Sealy, Reg Wilson and Ken Skinner and drummer Norman Marshall Villeneuve.
The city’s failure to pay her an appropriate tribute is symptomatic of a deeper disregard for the contributions of Montreal’s black community, historically concentrated in the neighbourhood near Union United Church at Atwater Ave. and Delisle St., said Fo Niemi, executive director of the Centre for Research-action on Race Relations.
“There is not full recognition of the role the black community has played for over a century,” he said.
Even Peterson, considered by many the greatest musical talent Canada has ever produced, only has a neighbourhood park named after him, he noted.
A grassroots campaign a decade ago to rename Lionel-groulx métro station — commemorating a nationalist historian who abhorred minorities — after Peterson went nowhere.
Celine Peterson, who produces concerts and other events preserving her father’s legacy, said Montreal’s record on recognizing diversity and honouring members of cultural minorities is disappointing.
“Montreal is a little behind in that sense, which is unfortunate,” she said.
Days after Sweeney died on Aug. 11, 2017, Coderre tweeted that he had spoken to pianist Jones and promised to “make sure there will be a Daisy Peterson Sweeney street in her honour shortly.”
He reiterated the promise at Sweeney’s memorial service.
On Sept. 5, the Sud-ouest borough adopted a motion to ask the city of Montreal to find a “significant place” that could be named after Daisy Elitha Peterson Sweeney.
The motion also called for a place to be named after late novelist Réjean Ducharme, who also lived in the neighbourhood.
Peterson said the family heard nothing further until May 3, when Sonia Vibert, head of the city’s heritage division, wrote to Sweeney’s daughter Sylvia Sweeney, a television producer and former Olympic athlete, to say the small park would be named after Daisy Sweeney.
The same day, Sylvia wrote back to say the family was “surprised and disappointed” by the news and that naming the small patch of green was not appropriate recognition for “a great lady like Daisy Peterson who was a pillar of her community and a matriarch to thousands of young Montreal musicians from all backgrounds in the course of a long life dedicated to serving others.”