Vancouver MP suggests high school be renamed in favour of diversity

A Vancouver MP would like to see a high school in his riding renamed to “make a statement in favour of diversity and equality.”

Don Davies is the Federal NDP Member of Parliament for the riding of Vancouver-Kingsway, where Gladstone Secondary School is located.

Davies noted the school is named after British Prime Minister William Gladstone, whose family owned slave plantations and who spoke against the abolition of slavery in Parliament.

“While he may have done other positive things, his association with such wounding racism is incompatible with the Canada we want in 2020,” Davies said in a statement. “People who are associated with particularly odious policies, or crimes against humanity, shouldn’t have buildings named after them.”

This, he said, “is especially the case for our institutions of learning.”

• See also:
  • BC restaurants, bars no longer limited to 50% capacity for dine-in patrons
  • Hand sanitizer coming to every RapidBus and more SkyTrain stations
  • Trudeau says systemic racism exists across Canada, including in the RCMP

In calling for a change to the school’s name, Davies said that “recent events have raised the painful existence of racism in all its forms” and that “systemic racism exists when it is part of our structures and symbols.”