Gatineau's street names should reflect city's Black history, researcher argues

Out of thousands of streets in Gatineau, Que., so few are named after Black people that you could count them on one hand, according to a political science researcher urging the city to make changes.

Patrice Emery Bakong, a Ph.D candidate at the Université de Montréal who's based in the western Quebec city, investigated how many streets and other public places in Quebec are named after Black people.

He was surprised to find they were so poorly represented, considering that as of 2021 Black people make up around 10 per cent of Gatineau's population.

"It's only a matter of justice, because we are all people of Gatineau," said Bakong. "I have two young children ... and I want them to have something they can hold onto."

Bakong reached out to city staff to talk about how they can be more inclusive of the Black community, and is slated to present his research to city council on Monday.

"I want to change the rules [about] how the streets and public spaces are named after people," Bakong said. 

Just 2 streets, one alley, one park

According to Bakong's research, two streets, one park and one alley in Gatineau are named after Black Canadians:

• La Ruelle and Le Parc Jean-Gardy-Bienvenu are named after a 12-year-old boy who drowned in Montreal.
• Rue Jean-Alfred is named after the first Black member of the National Assembly of Quebec.
• Rue Oxford is named after London Oxford, the first Black settler in the Ottawa Valley.

Recognition like this is vital, said Gatineau's only Black councillor, Bettyna Bélizaire.

"It's about a sense of belonging," she said.

"There are a lot of people from African descent that have helped build the Quebec that we know today, and their names need to be recognized." 

Gatineau has seen its Black community grow significantly in the last 20 years, Bélizaire added, making it doubly important to recognize them.

Struggles and solutions

A wave of Black people immigrated to Gatineau around the start of the 21st century, Bakong said, and the population has kept growing since then.

But since that population is relatively young compared to other demographics, there's a unique barrier to getting recognition on public infrastructure, Bakong said.

In Quebec, people must be dead for at least a year before something can be named after them — a rule Bakong thinks should go.

"It's not fair for Black people," he said.

One way around the rule, Bélizaire argued, is to use the names of Black people whose influence was international.

And she and Bakong both suggested using other words instead of names, like "Négritude," a cultural and political movement among French-speaking Black people.

Coun. Isabelle N. Miron, vice-president of the Gatineau Toponymy Committee, told Radio-Canada in French they've strived to promote inclusivity.

Those efforts, Miron said, have included renaming Rue Amherst — which honoured a controversial British general whose legacy regarding Indigenous people has long been debated — to Rue Wigwàs, which means "white birch" in Anishinabeg.

The same efforts should be made for the Black community, she said.

Bélizaire said it's important to ensure residents know they can propose names. The city reviews submissions, she said, and cultivates a list to use for future projects.

One Black person's name is on that list now: Marielle Lapaix, a businesswoman who was known as the "grandmother of the entire Haitian community in Gatineau."

If the one-year rule was dropped, Bélizaire suggested honouring former city councillor Mireille Apollon, a recipient of the Order of Gatineau and the Prix québécois de la citoyenneté.

"I would love to see her name on a street one day," Bélizaire said. 

Ottawa Morning7:22Changing street names to reflect Gatineau’s Black history and culture

We’ll hear about one Gatineau man’s efforts to highlight the lack of street names in the city that honour its Black history, and what changing the street names would mean for the next generation.