Editor:
Re: School naming will reflect inclusion, diversity: trustees, Record, March 28
As the New West school board decides on a process to evaluate school naming proposals, I would like to suggest that Chief Ahan is a questionable candidate for such an honour. The chief was one of six who decided 150 years ago that a road being built across their territory was sufficient provocation to declare war and then kill 19 innocent non-combatants. The chiefs knew that murder was then a hanging offence.
The suggestion that their surrender was induced by false promises of immunity may raise questions about colonialist honour, but it does not change the fact that chief’s conduct was, to say the least, not of the sort which we usually honour. Yes, I know, several politicians have apologized for the hanging of the chiefs, and absolved them of any crime.
Let me gently suggest that this attempt to reverse history was driven less by legal considerations than by political ones.
Richard Estey, New Westminster
