NCC to vote on new SJAM name after selecting Algonquin recommendation
Algonquin communities consulted over what to rename Ottawa's Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway have reached a consensus and the new name Kichi Zībī Mīkan will be recommended to the National Capital Commission's board of directors later this month, according to a letter circulated by one of the Indigenous groups involved.
In a June 7 letter addressed to Kitigan Zibi Anishinābeg Chief Dylan Whiteduck, commission CEO Tobi Nussbaum said an unveiling ceremony will be planned for this fall if the board approves the name at its next meeting on June 22.
The letter was included in Kitigan Zibi Anishinābeg's weeekly newsletter.
"I was informed by my team that [groups] reached a consensus for a new name: Kichi Zībī Mīkan," Nussbaum stated in the letter. It said the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation were also consulted about the new name and a letter sent to its chief.
Mīkan, pronounced MEE-khan, is an Algonquin word meaning road or path. Kichi Zībī means great river and is the Algonquin name for what would later be called the Ottawa River.
An NCC spokesperson said Friday the federal Crown corporation, which oversees the parkway, is expecting to finalize the renaming at the board meeting June 22.
In an interview Friday in Ottawa, Whiteduck said the proposed change is not just a necessary step toward reconciliation but a more contextually appropriate name.
"Our people literally walked under and met Samuel De Champlain under the Rideau Falls," Whiteduck said. "So you could imagine the context of that great river. It's a significant river for the Algonquins, many Canadians.
"Driving on [the parkway], it doesn't add any value to have it named Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway."
Local councillors had urged change
The parkway has carried the first prime minister's name for over a decade.
The Ottawa River Parkway was renamed in his honour in 2012, under the government of former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper.
Whiteduck said Indigenous groups called for the name to be changed as early as 2014.
In June 2021, three Ottawa city councillors sent a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urging the federal government to facilitate an Indigenous-led consultation process to rename the parkway.
The councillors wrote the letter after ground-penetrating radar located some 200 suspected unmarked graves at a former residential school site in Kamloops, B.C., saying there was an "urgent need" for Canada to commit to projects of reconciliation.
Macdonald authorized the creation of the residential school system while he was in power in the 1880s. It is estimated that more than 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were forced to attend the government-funded, church-operated schools, where many suffered abuse and some died. The last such school closed in 1996.
"When it comes to Indigenous Peoples, this man did wrong," Whiteduck said. "The wrongdoings of the past — we have to highlight these."
The commission's board of directors unanimously approved the recommendation to move forward with a renaming and engaging Indigenous communities.
"I am thankful for the generosity of the participants who shared views, stories and cultural references about the area, highlighting the profound connection the Algonquin Anishinabeg maintain with the river and surroundings," Nussbaum wrote.
