There are no current plans to restart efforts to rename Colonization Street in Emo, Ont., and the street name will remain for the foreseeable future, according to the township’s mayor.
Emo Mayor Harold McQuaker said the committee of residents living on the street came to the decision themselves over concerns with the difficulties associated with changing the street name of an address.
“The committee were concerned about address changes,” McQuaker said. “The committee came to our council meeting and, for the time being, it’s going to stay as Colonization Road.”
According to the mayor, the decision was unanimous among those who currently live on the street. “It was unanimous that it stayed the same. The unanimous decision was made by the residents on the street,” he said.
The name “Colonization” on streets has been seen as problematic due to the term’s association with the appropriation of Indigenous lands across North America. Other Northwestern Ontario municipalities have decided to rename such streets to something more progressive.
McQuaker said if the debate sparks back up at a later date, it will be dealt with at that time. “Never say something is not happening,” he said. “If there are concerns in the future, we will deal with them. But as far as the way it is right now, I see no reason to stir the pot, to be causing problems.”
Former Emo town councillor Lincoln Dunn, who was involved with the initial initiative to rename the road, approached Rainy River First Nation elder Albert Hunter in 2021 for assistance with selecting a new name.
Dunn said the replacement name suggested by Hunter at the time, Neechee Miikanaa or “Friendship Road,” was initially passed by town council before residents’ concerns halted any further action. Dunn, who is a former general manager of The Fort Frances Times, expressed his disappointment with Emo’s leaders for ceasing efforts to change the name.
“This is a low-hanging fruit. This is a gesture that, while symbolic, is important and not a difficult thing to do,” Dunn said. “I would say it’s a failure of leadership.”
“Change is hard, and I get it. People don’t necessarily want their address information to change. But it’s not like it’s the mailing address,” Dunn said. “We all have postal boxes in Emo, so changing the name of the street is fairly trivial. There are considerations and a process to go through, but there are lots of resources out there, some of which were provided by the town council.”
Dunn also questioned the process by which the municipality went about its final decision to change the name or leave it untouched, as the committee was open only to residents who live on the street.
“There aren’t a lot of residents who live on that street,” Dunn said. “If you’re taking the opinions of eight to 10 people and that’s what you’re using for the determination of whether to do something that’s an easy attempt to right the wrongs of what’s happened historically in our country to the Indigenous population, I question your judgment on that.”
Fort Frances voted in 2021 to rename its Colonization Road East and West to Agamiing Drive and Sunset Drive, respectively. These names serve to honour the Anishinaabe people and the Sunset Country Métis Community.
Kenora, Ont. and Dryden, Ont. also underwent street renaming to contribute to reconciliation efforts. Dryden’s Colonization Avenue was renamed in its northern area to Boozhoo Avenue, and its southern area to Memorial Avenue in 2021. Kenora’s small Colonization Road was ultimately absorbed into the connected and larger Nash Street in 2017, wiping the controversial name off the city’s map.
