At the city council meeting on Wednesday, councillors unanimously voted to change the name of John A. Macdonald Road to miyo-wâhkôhtowin Road. . Sir John A MacdonaldSir John A Macdonald .The new name is in the Cree language and means "good relationships.".READ MORE First PM John A. Macdonald’s street renamed in Saskatoon over residential schools.Saskatoon city council suggested changing the road's name over two years ago..A few weeks after Saskatoon Tribal Council Chief Mark Arcand publicly said the street should be renamed, the city council suggested the change. .They wanted to recognize the lasting harm caused by the Indian residential school system and the part John A. Macdonald, Canada's first prime minister, participated in..READ MORE Saskatoon city council spends $612,000 on ‘equity, diversity, inclusion’.At the meeting, five people shared their opinions. They discussed whether changing the street name was the right thing to do or not..Susan Gingell was one of the people who spoke at the meeting. She strongly supported changing the name and said the new name would help encourage “good relationships” between people and the land..“I know that this name is hurtful to residential school survivors and the people suffering from intergenerational trauma,” said Gingell..“I think some resistance to the name change is inevitable. I hope that over time, the benefits of responding to the invitation to better relationship will bring people into agreement. They will see the benefits with all the relations here on Treaty 6 territory.”.“I believe that this is larger than that particular community. I think the voices of those people need to be heard. This is about better relationships for all of the people who live in this city,” said Gingell..“Will they need to learn how to say the name and spell the name? Yes, they will. But like I said, indigenous people had to learn to speak a whole new language and they weren’t invited into it. They were required to speak the language of their colonizers. We’re asking for one word here.”.Mary Fedun, who lives near John A. Macdonald Road, spoke against the name change. She criticized how the city consulted the public about this issue over the past two years..“The process has been horrible,” said Fedun. .“Personally, I want to say I can’t believe it. I do believe the decision was made long before two years ago. What we saw in the middle of summer then and now means nothing.”.“The process, I think, is so flawed because they have no intention of going to setting up like they did with buses,” said Fedun..“We had all sorts of public engagement for libraries. Lots of people hate it (and) lots of people think it’s terrific, (but) at least we had them. And here we are at council after a summer where a lot of people have a lot of different things going.”.“I listen in and I’ve never heard anybody say, ‘Did you hear what council is doing?’ Most of the time the response is, ‘I think it’s awful what they’re doing,’” said Fedun. .“I don’t hear anybody saying this is a good thing. There are other ways of dealing with things to make them teachable tools.”. David Kirton Pride .Fedun stated the city should not avoid talking about Canada's history..City Councillor David Kirton responded by saying that a part of Canadian history has already been erased. He stated that many historians and writers have made sure that Canadians know very little about the residential school system..Other city councillors agreed with Kirton. They said that changes like this can be challenging. But they also said that moving towards reconciliation is really important and has to happen.
