Re: Dundas
 

I found this on Vancouver streets from CBC from a couple years ago.

https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/streets

Re: Dundas
 

Interesting. Maybe time to add some Asian street names !

Re: Dundas
 

Hi
Now that could be interesting world languages, in the greater vancouver area

chinese, italian, persian/iranian, korean, spanish,

​​​​​ to mention just a few

maybe we could do road signs in different languages, might improve the standard of driving here

cheers
jerry

​​​​

Re: Dundas
 

For Korean I could go for a Bibimbap Street :rofl: Such a funky sounding word and delicous food !

Re: Dundas
 

Coming to this a little late... but is that not a rather, um, insensitive turn of phrase considering the number of unmarked grave sites found on the property of former residential schools?

On the substantive issue of Henry Dundas, there seem to be two schools of thought on his mucking around with slavery legislation, and the truth is, unsurprisingly, somewhat nuanced. On the one hand, he threw various spanners in the works that delayed the passage of the bill, and ultimately delayed abolition in UK law, for somewhere between 15 and 40 years. On the other side of the equation is the argument that he was a bit of a pragmatist in with his blatantly self-serving and jingoistic/nationalistic interests, and knew that Wilberforce's bill as presented would never pass the Lords even if it succeeded in the Commons (which proved to be the case even with Dundas' amendment: the Act abolishing the slave trade wasn't passed until 1807, 15 years after the Wilberforce bill was passed on the Commons as amended by Dundas.) He agreed in principle with Wilberforce: "my opinion has always been against the slave trade" he said. His primary argument for amendment seems to have been that abolishing the British "official" slave trade would have two immediate effects: it would drive the British slave trade underground, and it would concede power in Africa to Britain's colonialist rivals. By inserting the word "gradual" into Wilberforce's bill, he at least turned a swingeing defeat (Wilberforce's first bill had failed by 163 to 88) into a vote for abolition.

Revisionist history is all very well, but there is definitely a tendency to see things in stark black-and-white terms (pun sort of unavoidable...) where the reality involves a whole spectrum of colour, let alone shades of grey. I can't see that the costs associated with renaming Dundas St and all the other attendant stuff (stations, the square, etc) wouldn't be better spent on doing something more concrete to provide practical support to BIPOC Canadians.