Renaming for Reconciliation

Shortly after the release of the closing report from the Truth and Reconciliation commission, a Calgary resident created an online petition to rename the Langevin Bridge.

The bridge is named for Hector-Louis Langevin, one of the Fathers of Confederation. As Secretary of State for the Provinces, Langevin was one of the creators of Canada's system of residential schools. A system the Truth and Reconciliation Commission said amounted to cultural genocide.

Michelle Robinson is one of the people who signed the online petition to rename the bridge. She lives in Calgary, is Dene, and is the Alberta President of the Liberal Party's "Aboriginal People's Commission".

She says, not only would renaming the bridge be part of the process of reconciliation between Canada and First Nations, but it's a process that could be replicated across the country.

I'm sure there are other places across Canada that people would rather see a more traditional name. And when I say traditional I don't mean European colonial traditional, I mean traditional to the land.- Michelle Robinson

 According to Robinson, the name that would replace the Langevin Bridge is less important than the conversations with First Nations and residential school survivors that would take place during the renaming. She believes the community conversations would be part of the healing and reconciliation called for in the TRC's report.