First Nation urges renaming of Langevin Block
Namesake tied to residential school system
A recent decision to rename Calgary’s Langevin Bridge because of its namesake’s connection to residential schools is spurring calls to change the name of the building in Ottawa that houses the Prime Minister’s Office.
Kevin Littlelight, a spokesman for Tsuut’ina First Nation in Alberta, says he is calling on his counterparts in the Ottawa region to petition the federal government to rename the Langevin Block, a national historic site built in 1889 across from the Parliament Buildings and home to the Prime Minister’s Office and the Privy Council Office.
“I call on the (Assembly of First Nations) chief to make that call and to write Public Works and change the name,” he said.
Littlelight was part of a citizens’ campaign that petitioned the City of Calgary to rename the Langevin Bridge following the release in 2015 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report.
The report noted that Sir Hector Langevin, a Father of Confederation and minister of public works in the late 1800s, was a chief architect of Canada’s residential school system, which aimed to “eliminate aboriginal people as distinct peoples and to assimilate them into the Canadian mainstream against their will.”
In 1883, Langevin told the House of Commons that aboriginal children needed to be separated from their parents if they were to be educated. “If you leave them in the family they may know how to read and write, but they still remain savages, whereas by separating them … they acquire the habits and tastes ... of civilized people,” he said.
This week, Calgary city council voted to rename the Langevin Bridge, which opened in 1910, as the Reconciliation Bridge. Mayor Naheed Nenshi told reporters that the decision was not about erasing history but about “writing a more inclusive history, a history that includes more people.” (A plaque will be installed at the bridge to explain its history and reasons for the name change).
In a statement Wednesday, the Assembly of First Nations said Perry Bellegarde, its national chief, is open to starting a dialogue on renaming Langevin Block.
“We need to build a better future for our children and that includes educating Canadians about our shared history,” the statement said.
“First Nations are driving many important initiatives during this anniversary year and we know we will see these kinds of partnerships between First Nations and the non-Indigenous community.”
Judy Foote, the federal minister of public services and procurement, did not have an immediate comment on renaming Langevin Block but is fully committed to addressing the legacy of residential schools, a spokeswoman said.
Her department said in an email that renaming government buildings can be done only for “compelling public policy reasons and following appropriate consultation.”
Kaitlin Wainwright, a public historian in Toronto, said that while she is not opposed to renaming government buildings and applauds the communityled effort in Calgary, she worries about completely wiping away from our collective memories the names of complex historical figures whose actions we may now find abhorrent.
“Erasure of that person doesn’t help us build a more fair and just society,” she said.
The decision to not demolish the concentration camps in Germany or structures built in Nuremberg under the Nazi regime is important because those structures serve as “touchstones for public remembrance,” she said.
Wainwright said she hopes Canadian officials don’t lose sight of the fact that renaming the Langevin Bridge is merely a “quick fix” and doesn’t get at the heart of true reconciliation, like making sure indigenous stories are included in Canadian history.
Still, the renaming of buildings can hold important symbolic value, said Linda Many Guns, a professor of Native American Studies at the University of Lethbridge.
“I strongly support the renaming of the (Langevin Block), primarily to demonstrate to our people that those governing bodies who enacted these policies will take responsibility for their role in the damage we still suffer and, secondly, to mark the important contributions we have made to make Canada what it is today,” she said.
FIRST NATIONS ARE DRIVING MANY IMPORTANT INITIATIVES DURING THIS ANNIVERSARY YEAR.