[ISL] "Mi’kmaq leader calls PEI park name a ‘grave insult’"

[rfmcdonald]

This Canadian Press article does, in fact, describe an absurd situation. Who thought this was a good idea?

It’s a “grave insult” that a national park in Prince Edward Island still bears the name of a military general who wanted to kill aboriginal people with smallpox, says a Mi’kmaq leader.

John Joe Sark, a member of the Mi’kmaq Nation traditional government, says the name of 18th-century British military commander Jeffery Amherst should be removed from the Port-la-Joye–Fort Amherst historic site near Charlottetown.

“Why should they name any public place after a barbarian and a tyrant that this guy was?” Mr. Sark said Monday from Johnstons River, PEI.

“He may be a hero to the colonial government or the Settlers’ Society or whatever, but he’s no hero to the Mi’kmaq people.”

He has written to the federal government in a bid that adds fuel to an ongoing debate about how historic figures are honoured across Canada and the United States.