{"id":77676,"date":"2022-01-19T08:09:45","date_gmt":"2022-01-19T13:09:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=77676"},"modified":"2022-01-19T10:37:51","modified_gmt":"2022-01-19T15:37:51","slug":"ottawa-resident-campaigns-to-rename-municipal-parks-after-remarkable-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/ottawa-resident-campaigns-to-rename-municipal-parks-after-remarkable-women\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa resident campaigns to rename municipal parks after remarkable women"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ottawa resident behind the renaming of Annie Pootoogook Park wants to bring recognition to other historically significant women, one park at a time.<\/span><\/p>\n

When the Sandy Hill Community Centre at 250 Somerset St. E. was<\/span> renamed to Annie Pootoogook Park<\/span><\/a> in early November, it made local headlines. The new sign for the park was unveiled during an official ceremony featuring an <\/span>attendance by Governor General Mary May Simon.<\/span><\/p>\n

The idea for the new name was championed by resident and <\/span>Action Sandy Hill<\/span><\/a> member St\u00e9phanie Plante, who noticed a <\/span>lack of places in Ottawa named for women<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs I was making my way around the city\u2014suburbs, urban areas, rural areas\u2014I noticed that there wasn't\u2026 anything really named after women,\u201d says Plante.<\/span><\/p>\n

Annie Pootoogook<\/span><\/a> was a prominent Inuk artist who lived in the Sandy Hill area of Ottawa. Originally from Cape Dorset, Nunavut, Pootoogook moved to Ottawa in 2008 after gaining fame across Canada for her contemporary depictions of everyday Inuit life. At the time, she was a single mother raising a young daughter.<\/span><\/p>\n

Plante says she feels a connection to Pootoogook. As a single mother who has struggled financially, Plante can relate to some of the challenges Pootoogook faced.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI always thought it was just weird that our personal lives kind of fell apart at the same time,\u201d says Plante. \u201cBut we both had very different outcomes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In mid-September 2016, Pootoogook, who had battled an addiction to substances for much of her life, was discovered dead in the Rideau River near Bordeleau Park. Her death was considered suspicious. A subsequent investigation into her death, led by <\/span>Sgt. Chris Hrnchiar<\/span><\/a> of the Ottawa Police Service, lasted 13 months and yielded no conclusive evidence regarding the nature of Pootoogook\u2019s death.<\/span><\/p>\n

The event rattled Ottawa\u2019s Inuk community, especially after <\/span>racist comments<\/span><\/a> made by Hrnchiar concerning Pootoogook\u2019s death were found online, according to APTN.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In December 2019, Plante began the process to rename the Sandy Hill Community Centre. Pootoogook\u2019s name was chosen because of her connection to the Sandy Hill community and its <\/span>many Indigenous residents<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Plante, the reception among community members was \u201coverwhelmingly positive.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think, especially because that was the beginning of the pandemic, people were desperate for some good news,\u201d says Plante. \u201cIt was just news that was a bright light in what was probably a dark time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

However, shortly after the park\u2019s debut in November, the new sign bearing Pootoogook\u2019s name was defaced. The vandal had painted over Pootoogook\u2019s name, writing \u201cSandy Hill,\u201d the park\u2019s previous name, in its place.<\/span><\/p>\n

This prompted a police investigation, which has yet to be concluded, Const. Paramjit Singh told CHUO on Tuesday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Plante was devastated by the vandalism, which she says is not representative of her community.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that people see Sandy Hill, not only with this project, but the future projects that we have going on, that it's a place where everyone can feel welcome and accepted,\u201d says Plante.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of those projects is already underway, as Plante is in the process of having Sandy Hill\u2019s Wilfrid Laurier Park renamed after Cindy Mitchell, former director of Ottawa\u2019s <\/span>Bettye Hyde Nursery.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the reason for that is because we know essential workers are few and far between in our public consciousness\u2026 in terms of recognition,\u201d says Plante. \u201cAnd the other aspect is [that] because of early childhood care workers, a lot of women can continue working and keep their careers going. So we want to make sure that at a municipal level, there's some recognition for that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mitchell, who worked at Bettye Hyde for 27 years, <\/span>retired in 2020<\/span><\/a> after having largely shaped the early learning centre\u2019s successful business model. She is known for being an champion for equal pay and health benefits for workers in the early childhood education industry.<\/span><\/p>\n

Plante has yet to see any opposition to the proposed name change, for which Action Sandy Hill is <\/span>currently seeking support<\/span><\/a> from city councillors. Plante is hoping the name change will be approved and implemented by this coming Labour Day, which was celebrated in honour of essential workers last year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Listen to the CHUO story below:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Ottawa resident behind the renaming of Annie Pootoogook Park wants to bring recognition to other historically significant women, one park at a time. When the Sandy Hill Community Centre at 250 Somerset St. E. was renamed to Annie Pootoogook Park in early November, it made local headlines. The new sign for the park was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":77759,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,3265],"tags":[11992,6673,1503,11997,11996,11994,8408,710,12001,11998,11993,11995,11999,11373,12000,1930],"radio":[1290],"origine":[267,269,1571],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77676"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77676"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=77676"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=77676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}