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Naming a street after a Nazi sympathizer is easier than one might think.
In one Gatineau neighbourhood, it happened twice, on streets that nearly intersect. It is sometimes called the hospital district and, indeed, driving around there Thursday morning — the northeast end of the city — I can spy the top floors of city’s main hospital in the distance.
It isn’t like Hitler Road meets Himmler Avenue. It is more sly, which is probably why it took 25 years to be reckoned with.
When these streets were named in this new neighbourhood in 1990 or so, the theme was Nobel laureates in science: whatever could go wrong by relying on a list of world-renowned brainiacs, all of them long dead?
Oh, but to count the ways.
Mid-morning, there is a man sitting in an SUV on Rue Phillip-Lénard. Out hops Philippe Couroux, 46, a federal public servant. He knows all about the pending name change for these streets; he helped bring it about.
When the Nazi links became an issue last year, he leaped into the debate.
Related
Being civic-minded, he went door-to-door on the 100 or so houses on Phillip-Lénard, petition in hand, drawing out opinions about whether the street name should be changed to Rue Albert Einstein (sticking with the Nobel theme).
The trouble with Philipp Lénard, we are freshly reminded, is that, while a brilliant physicist and a Nobel Prize winner in 1905, he was Hitler’s buddy and on the same nutty anti-semitic wavelength. Nice handle to have on your driver’s licence.
Couroux, a resident here for 15 years, managed to hit nearly every house during his canvas, only to discover the vote was basically tied, 44 in favour, 44 against, with another half-dozen no-shows.
He supports the change. A street-naming is an honour, after all, and why should residents of this middle-class area be publicly commending an historical figure with hideous views?
Though a pioneering surgeon, Alexis Carrel was an advocate for eugenics, or selective breeding and sterilization.
A similar petition on nearby Rue Alexis-Carrel was also done. Neither was it conclusive, but the ward councillor decided the two names should be changed anyway, because of the Nazi baggage.
Alexis Carrel (1873-1944) was a French surgeon credited with many pioneering techniques, earning him the Nobel in 1912. But he was keen on eugenics and was thought to have Nazi links. (There is yet a street and park named for him in Montreal.) The street is to be renamed in honour of Marie Curie.
Naming public things after private people is never perfect. Even Mother Teresa, proving no one is safe, was attacked as a fraud.
Sir John A. Macdonald? A drunk who still can’t win, as per this headline in the Citizen in January: “Stop excusing our first PM’s misdeeds; He was an ideological, violent, murderous liar.”
And enjoy the ride, by the way, along the river parkway just named in his honour.
We don’t forget, of course, the fiasco over the possible renaming of the City of Ottawa archives building for legendary mayor Charlotte Whitton. We still haven’t forgiven Mayor Jim Watson for withdrawing the idea in the face of overblown charges that Whitton was a flaming anti-Semite.
Nor was the naming of an arena on Merivale Road for Howard Darwin our finest hour. (He deserved better.)
Well, not to be overly harsh on the good citizens of Gatineau, but naming a bunch of streets for foreign scientists is just a bad idea. The names tend to be hard to spell, have zero local connection and have no identifying quality, not to mention there is already a Marie Curie Private at the University of Ottawa.
Thus did it please us to pick up the paper Thursday and see two civic namings that make sense. Ken Ross, a well-known merchant and community builder, is to have a park named for him in Barrhaven. This is wise. It connects a deserving person to the place his deeds were committed.
Similarly, with the proposed naming of a skateboard park at McNabb Community Centre for Charlie Bowins, who died in his sleep in March at age 27. Not a household name across the city, but a young man known as a counsellor, instructor and fundraiser for the skateboard crowd in Centretown. So is he connected to time and place and, years after his tragic death, will they speak well of his work, rooted there.
So, the lesson, maybe, is that simple. Know the person behind the name, know the why, own the pride.
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
查看原文...
In one Gatineau neighbourhood, it happened twice, on streets that nearly intersect. It is sometimes called the hospital district and, indeed, driving around there Thursday morning — the northeast end of the city — I can spy the top floors of city’s main hospital in the distance.
It isn’t like Hitler Road meets Himmler Avenue. It is more sly, which is probably why it took 25 years to be reckoned with.
When these streets were named in this new neighbourhood in 1990 or so, the theme was Nobel laureates in science: whatever could go wrong by relying on a list of world-renowned brainiacs, all of them long dead?
Oh, but to count the ways.
Mid-morning, there is a man sitting in an SUV on Rue Phillip-Lénard. Out hops Philippe Couroux, 46, a federal public servant. He knows all about the pending name change for these streets; he helped bring it about.
When the Nazi links became an issue last year, he leaped into the debate.
Related
Being civic-minded, he went door-to-door on the 100 or so houses on Phillip-Lénard, petition in hand, drawing out opinions about whether the street name should be changed to Rue Albert Einstein (sticking with the Nobel theme).
The trouble with Philipp Lénard, we are freshly reminded, is that, while a brilliant physicist and a Nobel Prize winner in 1905, he was Hitler’s buddy and on the same nutty anti-semitic wavelength. Nice handle to have on your driver’s licence.
Couroux, a resident here for 15 years, managed to hit nearly every house during his canvas, only to discover the vote was basically tied, 44 in favour, 44 against, with another half-dozen no-shows.
He supports the change. A street-naming is an honour, after all, and why should residents of this middle-class area be publicly commending an historical figure with hideous views?
Though a pioneering surgeon, Alexis Carrel was an advocate for eugenics, or selective breeding and sterilization.
A similar petition on nearby Rue Alexis-Carrel was also done. Neither was it conclusive, but the ward councillor decided the two names should be changed anyway, because of the Nazi baggage.
Alexis Carrel (1873-1944) was a French surgeon credited with many pioneering techniques, earning him the Nobel in 1912. But he was keen on eugenics and was thought to have Nazi links. (There is yet a street and park named for him in Montreal.) The street is to be renamed in honour of Marie Curie.
Naming public things after private people is never perfect. Even Mother Teresa, proving no one is safe, was attacked as a fraud.
Sir John A. Macdonald? A drunk who still can’t win, as per this headline in the Citizen in January: “Stop excusing our first PM’s misdeeds; He was an ideological, violent, murderous liar.”
And enjoy the ride, by the way, along the river parkway just named in his honour.
We don’t forget, of course, the fiasco over the possible renaming of the City of Ottawa archives building for legendary mayor Charlotte Whitton. We still haven’t forgiven Mayor Jim Watson for withdrawing the idea in the face of overblown charges that Whitton was a flaming anti-Semite.
Nor was the naming of an arena on Merivale Road for Howard Darwin our finest hour. (He deserved better.)
Well, not to be overly harsh on the good citizens of Gatineau, but naming a bunch of streets for foreign scientists is just a bad idea. The names tend to be hard to spell, have zero local connection and have no identifying quality, not to mention there is already a Marie Curie Private at the University of Ottawa.
Thus did it please us to pick up the paper Thursday and see two civic namings that make sense. Ken Ross, a well-known merchant and community builder, is to have a park named for him in Barrhaven. This is wise. It connects a deserving person to the place his deeds were committed.
Similarly, with the proposed naming of a skateboard park at McNabb Community Centre for Charlie Bowins, who died in his sleep in March at age 27. Not a household name across the city, but a young man known as a counsellor, instructor and fundraiser for the skateboard crowd in Centretown. So is he connected to time and place and, years after his tragic death, will they speak well of his work, rooted there.
So, the lesson, maybe, is that simple. Know the person behind the name, know the why, own the pride.
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
查看原文...
