Cornwallis name sparks new debate, this time over a river

KENTVILLE, N.S. • A debate sweeping the country over the naming of monuments and places after contentious historical figures has found a new flashpoint in rural Nova Scotia.

A Scottish immigrant launched a bid to change the name of the Cornwallis River, a roughly 50-kilometre tidal waterway that meanders through the Annapolis Valley, as well as the name of a bridge that crosses the river.

Isobel Hamilton of Centreville, N.S., said Edward Cornwallis, the former governor of Nova Scotia who issued a bounty on Mi’kmaq scalps, also played a brutal role at the Battle of Culloden, violently suppressing the Jacobite rebellion in her Scottish homeland.

But she said her motivation isn’t about scrubbing Cornwallis’s name from history, but rather recognizing the province’s Indigenous roots.

“Remembering history is about remembering all of history and there is not a lot to remember the Mi’kmaq history by,” Hamilton, who moved to Nova Scotia about four years ago, said Monday. “You can’t undo the things that have happened in the past but it would be nice if the Indigenous presence here before the arrival of the Europeans was reflected in place names and landmarks.”

Upon learning of Hamilton’s petitions, the Town of Kentville covered up the name Cornwallis on a poster of a new bridge set to be built next year, noting it never intended to name the crossing after Cornwallis.

Still, calls remain for the province to rename the Cornwallis River, with Hamilton’s petition suggesting the original Mi’kmaq name of Jijuktu’kwejk be restored.

In 2015, Premier Stephen McNeil had a sign for the Cornwallis River removed at the request of a Mi’kmaq elder, but no further steps were taken to rename the waterway.

Halifax has been the focal point of the polarizing debate over Cornwallis in Nova Scotia, with city council voting last spring for a staff report on the commemoration of the city’s founder on municipal assets, including Cornwallis Park and Cornwallis Street.

A city spokesman said Monday the report, which will include the terms of reference and a recommended composition for an expert panel that will review the issue, is expected to go before council in the coming weeks.

A bronze statue of Cornwallis, who founded Halifax in 1749 during his term as governor, stands in a downtown park. Mi’kmaq groups have long argued the statue should be removed, and have called his actions a form of genocide against Indigenous peoples. Members of the Nova Scotia Assembly of Mi’kmaq Chiefs agree that the statue should come down.