The mayors of Vancouver and Victoria will present motions to their councils next week asking to rename Trutch Street in their cities.
Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart says he will present a motion at the June 8 council meeting asking that Trutch Street in the westside be renamed, while Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps will do the same thing on June 10 for the street in Fairfield.
“There have been calls to do this for at least a decade and it’s long past time to act,” Stewart said in a statement. “Joseph Trutch actively worked to marginalize Indigenous people and seize their lands.”
Stewart said he had spoken to Musqueam leadership about the move.
Trutch Street in Vancouver runs north through the heart of Kitsilano from 16th Avenue to the waterfront, while Trutch Street in Victoria is only two blocks long.
Trutch, who died in 1904, was the first lieutenant-governor of British Columbia. According to records, Trutch penned hate-filled screeds denigrating Indigenous people and in the late 1860s reduced the size of reserves in B.C. by 90 per cent.
The motion being presented to Victoria council states it would affect 60 households and that the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations would be consulted “on any cultural or ceremonial work that would take place as part of the renaming process.”
