Local should get preference in facility naming
Everyone involved with the controversy over what to name the new Hamilton high school near the site of the old Scott Park school seems to have the best intentions.
The board overall had the right intentions when using its established protocol to seek public input on the name. The advisory committee that reviewed the public submissions meant well when, in the process of doing that, it decided it really wanted the new school to carry an Indigenous name, presumably as a concrete manifestation of reconciliation. The members of the public who objected to the previous front-runner names, Bernie Custis and Nikola Tesla, being bumped in favour of two names with Indigenous significance, were objecting out of respect for public opinion. And when board trustees got involved and basically stopped to process, turning it over to a student vote to decide, they, too, were trying to do the right thing.
And yet, the whole matter has gone somewhat off the rails.
We don’t have a complete answer regarding how it could be done differently to avoid future problems, but we do have a heartfelt suggestion that might help, at least in part.
Go local. That’s a key feature of The Spectator’s philosophy about being Hamilton’s daily newspaper. Local rules, whenever possible.
We would argue that all other factors being equal, names of local significance should get priority over those that are provincial, national or even international in scope.
Why? It’s pretty simple, really. The Spec’s Scott Radley has been covering and opining on this subject for some time now, and he puts it succinctly, saying, to paraphrase, if we’re not going to celebrate and showcase our local luminaries in Hamilton, then who will?
Bernie Custis’s legacy is eminently worthy of his name being on a public facility, be it a school, athletic facility, sports field, library or what have you. He overcame odds to succeed as a black Canadian playing quarterback in the Canadian Football League. He was a loved and respected coach and mentor to hundreds of young people. Glenn Gibson, vice-chair for the TigerCats, says in a soon-to-be-published letter to the editor: “I played for the Hamilton Hurricanes back in the early 1970s. Bernie Custis coached the Burlington Braves. I recall losing a game to the Braves. As I slowly walked to the dressing room with my head down I felt an arm go around my shoulder. He asked me, ‘Son, did you play as hard as you could today?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ Bernie replied, ‘Then, you won today.’ That encounter has stayed with me a lifetime.”
Shannen Koostachin was the front-runner Indigenous name involved. She was a girl from the Attawapiskat community who lobbied to get a school built there, but was killed in a car accident in 2010 before it actually happened.
Both are eminently worthy. But for a public facility in Hamilton, the local name seems a perfect fit. It’s not that one is more worthy, it’s that one is part of Hamilton’s heritage and history, the other is part of a much larger fabric, and should be recognized as well.
Local matters. And it should be a major, weighted, consideration when considering naming public facilities in Hamilton.
We would argue that all other factors being equal, names of local significance should get priority ... if we’re not going to celebrate and showcase our local luminaries in Hamilton, then who will?