The Powell River library is being warned not to cancel a controversial upcoming discussion about changing the city’s name.
Locals opposed to a name change booked the library for an event July 8, and have invited several guest speakers including a political scientist and historian. However, organizer Diane Sparks says she has been asked for additional information and told the Library Council’s consent may be required to confirm the booking. She suspects the library is thinking about cancelling the event to placate critics.
Glenn Blackett is the lawyer for Diane Sparks and Frances Widdowson, one of the guest speakers.
“Quite apart from the Library’s constitutional duties, it would be a sad failure for a library, of all places, to suppress public access to information,” he said in a statement. “We are urging the Library to respect citizens’ Charter rights and the Library’s legal obligations by allowing the event to proceed on July 8, 2024.”
The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms says it sent a letter to the chief librarian pointing out the library is subject to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and may not interfere with the content of expressive activity.
Earlier this year the library hosted an event with a guest speaker, historian Sean Carleton, in favour of changing the town’s name.
The name change was pitched to Powell River council in 2021 by Tla’amin Nation Hegus John Hackett.
The prospect of changing the name must not be a matter of ‘if’, but a matter of ‘when’. To suggest that a name change is simply a possibility and not an eventuality is to suggest that it is still appropriate to celebrate the legacy of residential schools and cultural genocide,” he said in a June 21, 2021 letter to the mayor and council. “How will this be viewed by your grandchildren and great-grandchildren? Now is the time to make things right and be on the right side of history – commit to changing the name as part of the City’s commitment to reconciliation, UNDRIP, and TRC, and let’s work together on process, options and timing.”
The town is named after Powell River and Lake, which were named after Israel Wood Powell, BC’s superintendent of Indian Affairs in the 1880s. He supported residential schools, but he also advocated for economic prosperity for Indigenous nations.
Since 2021 the debate has been heated. Last month several locals including Diane Sparks spoke to council and said the name change proposal has brought divisiveness and resentment between the town and the nation.
A recent community survey of more than 2,000 respondents found 93% were against changing the town’s name.
