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Edmonton has been a city for 126 years. Today, over 40% of Edmontonians are a BIPOC or minority. In the last 126, only 4 BIPOC have served #YEGCC.
Speaking of history let’s also remember:
Speaking of history let’s also remember:
Dan Knott was an Edmonton mayor who the Ku Klux Klan campaigned for. They burned a cross in his honor when he won. He has a school named after him called Dan Knott School and he has a neighbourhood named after him called Knotwood. (1)
Malcolm MacCrimmon was was an accountant and bureaucrat with the Canadian government who made it his life’s work to disenfranchise as many Indigenous people as possible so that the government would pay less money in Treaty annuities. He has a park named after him in Ermineskin (2
Alex Taylor was a co-founder and co-owner of the Edmonton Bulletin, the newspaper Frank Oliver used to whip up enmity towards Indigenous people and justify his land thefts. He has a school and a road named after him. (3)
Richard Phillip Ottewell was captured by Louis Riel and held prisoner for trespassing on Metis territory in 1869. Later joined the Wolsely expedition and helped put down the Red River Rebellion by capturing Fort Garry. He has a neighbourhood named after him in the North East. (4)
Winston Churchill was responsible for the genocide of 3 million Bengalis through famine. Sent the Black and Tans into Ireland in 1920 who committed many atrocities. He has a LRT station, square and crescent named after him.
Philip Primrose was one of the founding members of the North West Mounted Police, the precursor to the RCMP and an institution created to control, police and dispossess Indigenous people in order for white people to settle western Canada. A neighbourhood bears his name (5)
Frank Oliver Frank Oliver. Not only did he use his position as a newspaper publisher, prominent local businessman and eventual cabinet minister to steal Indigenous land for profit he was also a virulent racist and wrote about why he hated other races frequently. He said the 1/3
Chinese lived “like pigs.” The Japanese “are not our people, they do not belong to our civilization, they do not strengthen our country.” He drafted an order as a cabinet (that never executed) that banned “any immigrants belonging to the Negro race” from entering Canada. (2/3)
Frank Oliver has a neighbourhood in central Edmonton that bears his name. (3/3) (
Matthew Blackwood, a police chief who presided over the highest profile persecution of gay men in Edmonton history, where ten men were arrested and put on trial for being gay. He has a crescent named after him (Blackwood Crescent). (6)
John Cabot who, through the introduction of disease and land claims, was responsible for the extinction of the Beothuk people. He has a park named after him in the North East - Giovanni Caboto Park. (7)
William Griesbach, a decorated veteran of the Boer war, mayor, senator, and vehement racist. Said that the “Japanese were unable to understand the principles of democratic government”. He had a neighbourhood named after him and a federal riding. (8)
WD Ferris, who was an active member of the Imperial Order Daughters of Empire. This racist and imperialist organization still exists and hands out charitable tax receipts to this day. They have a road named after him in Falconer Heights called (Ferris Way). (9)
Robert Rundle wasAlberta’s first missionary. “Christian missionaries laid the foundation for Canada’s residential school system,” from the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. He has a neighbourhood and park named after him. (10)
Vital-Justin Grandin, an early supporter of the residential school system. He saw residential schoosl as the best way for Indigenous children to “forget the customs, habits and language of their ancestors” and was successful in pushing the residential school system (1/2)
to early Canadian leaders. Grandin has a neighbourhood, school, and a LRT system. (2/2). (11)
James Andrew Broun-Ramsay, or Lord Dalhousie and the Governor-General of India from 1848-1856. Oversaw the brutal rule of India that eventually led to the Great Rebellion of 1857. He has two roads named after him. (Dalhousie Way and Dalhousie Crescent). (12)
LD Byrne, a cabinet minister in the Social Credit governments of William Aberhart and Ernest Manning and a virulent anti-Semite. Byrne has three roads named after him (Byrne Court, Byrne Crescent, and Byrne Place)
(13)
(13)
Racism and discrimination is literally installed in neighbourhood. It is the name of our communities. If I’m elected to council, I will champion for a committee to rename all of these neighborhoods, parks and LRT stations. Change is possible. #yegcc #yeg #yegvote.
Information credit goes to Progress Report.
More can be found here - https://www.theprogressreport.ca/edmonton_s_top_20_most_racist_and_problematic_place_names
More can be found here - https://www.theprogressreport.ca/edmonton_s_top_20_most_racist_and_problematic_place_names
