Dominic Runghen
Staff reporter
Dewdney trunk road is a road connected all throughout the lower parts of B.C. Dewdney trunk road was named after a man named Edgar Dewdney. Dewdney was known for being a road builder in British Columbia after moving from England to start a new life although, he was extremely racist towards the First Nations people.
According to Kyle Balzers article “Is it time to rename Dewdney Trunk Road? A group of determined Coquitlam students say ‘yes” “He’s widely criticized for racist relations with Indigenous and Métis nations which included withholding food sources as a means for land control and to push them into reserves, resulting in thousands of deaths from starvation “.
Many people have claimed, his acts lead to genocide during his time in parliament. Dewdney even stated that the longer they disobey the Government, the more wretched will they become, implying they will become harder to control.
Megan Leslie and 15 students from DR. Charles best secondary have recognized his disgusting actions and are trying to get the city of Coquitlam to rename the road to something that shows truth and reconciliation to the Kwikwetlem First Nation.
According to Mike Lloyd and Hannah Mae Nassar article “Coquitlam students push to rename Dewdney Trunk over racist history”, “Lesley and her students have decided to initiate their concerns by writing our various government representatives, from the City of Coquitlam to our local MLA and MPs,” and was happy to see how supportive they were.
These students have also approached the Kwikwetlem First Nation to ask what they want the road to be named.
Grade 11 student Josh Li from Gleneagle secondary thinks that “as much of a great idea it is to change the road, he does not think changing the name of the road will be beneficial to the first nations community, in other words it’s not educating people on what really happened to them. He feels that “it’s easy to provide things to people for forgiveness, but people care more when more thought has been put into it”.
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2022/01/27/coquitlam-push-rename-dewdney-trunk/
