Gassy Jack

Renaming and reconciliation

By: Gurleen Aujla, Peak Associate Content warning: colonialism, Indian Act, intergenerational trauma, ongoing harm The “Gassy Jack” statue, from which Gastown draws its name, has been pulled down. Unlike the statue, however, colonialism still stands. This is evident in the names of streets, institutions, cities, and even our own school. This leads to the question of whether we ought to rename places like Gastown to reflect a shift away from upholding colonial perspectives, and demonstrate our commitment to reconciliation.  Though I am a non-Indigenous person with a filtered perspective on what reconciliation should look like, I don’t see name changes alone…

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