The African Diaspora Association of Canada is petitioning the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) to change the name of a downtown metro station. Its members say they experience “trauma” every time they take the tube, especially when it stops at McGill station.
“When we hear the name McGill it’s traumatic for us, right? It’s like telling Jews to take a subway named Hitler,” said Otito Atansi, a member of the African Diaspora Association of Canada.
The station shares the name with James McGill, the founder of McGill University and a slaveholder.
“We know that he enslaved at least five people, both indigenous and black,” said Charmaine Nelson, Canada’s research chair in Transatlantic Black Diaspora Art and Community Engagement and director of the Institute for the Study of Canadian Slavery.
“Knowingly, he exploited slaves in the Caribbean who he would have understood were the ones being forced to produce rum, sugar and molasses on sugar cane plantations.”
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In a statement, STM writes that “we are sensitive to the concerns expressed and work to promote diversity and combat systemic racism,” adding that the public transit agency created a moratorium on name changes in 2006.
The Quebec Black Coalition argues that the STM can reverse its own decision, it simply refuses to act.
“Not to change the name of the McGill metro station is to support systemic discrimination,” said Max Stanley Bazin, president of the Quebec Black Coalition.
Members of the black community say changing the name of the subway station is a starting point.
“If we can start from there, you can start the change from there, maybe in the future, when you go to the street, you go to university,” Atansi said.
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The African Diaspora Association of Canada has sent a letter to the City of Montreal requesting their help. However, the administration said it has no power when it comes to changing the names of metro stations.
“We cannot change the past. That’s what I’m saying. The past is the past and right now we live together, but we have to change,” said the president of the African Diaspora Association of Canada, Soumaila B. Coulibaly.
Coulibaly hopes to continue talks with the city and STM to rename the McGill station something that is trauma-free for members of the diaspora.
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