{"id":16279,"date":"2021-07-08T10:02:28","date_gmt":"2021-07-08T14:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/?p=16279"},"modified":"2021-07-08T10:13:51","modified_gmt":"2021-07-08T14:13:51","slug":"boswell-column-prompts-renaming-of-chief-william-commanda-bridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/sjc\/2021\/boswell-column-prompts-renaming-of-chief-william-commanda-bridge\/","title":{"rendered":"Boswell column prompts renaming of \u2018Chief William Commanda Bridge\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Photo by Matthew Guida\/Capital Current<\/p><\/div>\n

An idea proposed last year by Carleton journalism professor Randy Boswell to rename the capital\u2019s Prince of Wales Bridge to honour the late Algonquin chief William Commanda has been approved by Ottawa\u2019s city council, part of an ambitious, $22-million plan to turn the 140-year-old rail crossing into a cycling, walking and winter skiing route across the Ottawa River.<\/p>\n

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson announced in January that a Boswell column published in the Ottawa Citizen in December 2020 had convinced him that the historic, 1.3-kilometre-long bridge should be renamed to honour Commanda as a gesture of reconciliation with Indigenous nations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI read Randy Boswell\u2019s column in the Citizen attentively during the holidays, and I agree with him that this bridge crossing the Ottawa River \u2014 which has been deemed sacred by the Algonquin People for thousands of years \u2014 should bear an Indigenous name,\u201d Watson stated during his annual State of the City speech on Jan. 27. \u201cThe renaming of the Prince of Wales Bridge will serve as an important symbol of reconciliation between our nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

An artist\u2019s illustration what the restored and renamed Chief William Commanda Bridge will look like within a year. (Image courtesy of the City of Ottawa)<\/p><\/div>\n

The proposed \u201cChief William Commanda Bridge\u201d was endorsed by leaders of the two main Ottawa-area Algonquin communities \u2014 Kitigan Zibi in Quebec and Pikwakanagan in Ontario \u2014 and Watson\u2019s motion to officially redesignate the bridge and move ahead with its planned repurposing as an \u201cactive transportation\u201d crossing was approved by city council on Wednesday, July 7.<\/p>\n

Public consultations on the proposed renaming in June also showed strong support for the move, Watson told councillors on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The transformation of the bridge is earmarked for significant financial backing from the Canadian government, and Watson said an official announcement from Ottawa Centre MP Catherine McKenna \u2014 federal Minister of Infrastructure and Communities \u2014 is expected to follow within days.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is simply going to be a huge tourism draw in Ottawa,\u201d Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper, whose ward encompasses the bridge, told CBC News on Wednesday. “It will be a four-season gem, recreationally, in the city, and it’s really going to be a really key part of our transportation network for active transportation, bringing people safely back and forth to Gatineau.”<\/p>\n

Plans also call for nearly $100,000 to be allocated for the creation of an Indigenous public art project at the bridge site.<\/p>\n

In his December column, Boswell argued that the renaming of certain major landmarks to honour important Indigenous figures should be a key part of the sweeping changes currently unfolding across Canada\u2019s commemorative landscape. Statues, street names and other landmarks honouring Sir John A. Macdonald, Egerton Ryerson and their fellow architects of Canada\u2019s Residential School system have been targeted by anti-racism advocates in recent years.<\/p>\n

That movement that has accelerated in recent weeks as a result of revelations about the unmarked graves of hundreds of Indigenous children at former Residential School sites in Canada. In fact, Ottawa\u2019s Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway \u2014 which leads to the newly renamed bridge \u2014 is currently the focus of a campaign led by Algonquin elder Albert Dumont, Ottawa\u2019s poet laureate, to be stripped of its name.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s anti-Black racism protests across North America also sparked controversy over commemorative place names honouring historical figures who owned slaves in colonial Canada \u2014 including 19th-century Upper Canada administrators Peter Russell, the namesake of the Ottawa-area township of Russell, and William Jarvis, immortalized in one of Toronto\u2019s major downtown streets.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the midst of the pandemic, a second major societal challenge emerged this year with the mass anti-racism protests across North America and beyond. The movement has highlighted the embedded discrimination that exists in our country \u2014 particularly as it affects the BIPOC communities of Black, Indigenous and People of Colour \u2014 and drawn attention to the way the naming of streets, buildings and other places has sometimes memorialized slave owners and other unworthy figures from the past,\u201d Boswell wrote in his December column in the Citizen.<\/p>\n

The legacy of Chief Commanda, he argued, \u201cis particularly compelling: human rights advocate, peace and environmental activist, spiritual leader, visionary unifier of Indigenous peoples of the vast Ottawa River watershed and the world far beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n

Renaming the high-profile Ottawa River crossing after Commanda, Boswell concluded, \u201cwould be a fitting tribute: a rejuvenated bridge \u2014 symbol of sustainability and intercity, interprovincial and intercultural harmony \u2014 dedicated to a widely revered bridge-builder.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An idea proposed last year by Carleton journalism professor Randy Boswell to rename the capital\u2019s Prince of Wales Bridge to honour the late Algonquin chief William Commanda has been approved by Ottawa\u2019s city council, part of an ambitious, $22-million plan to turn the 140-year-old rail crossing into a cycling, walking and winter skiing route across […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,38],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nBoswell column prompts renaming of \u2018Chief William Commanda Bridge\u2019 | School of Journalism and Communication<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An idea proposed last year by Carleton journalism professor Randy 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